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SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

All rights reserved

LORD GEORGE MURRAY.
From a Painting by J. Davison, 1738.

Bv permission of

His Grace the Duke of Atholl, K.T.

SCOTLAND

FROM THE TREATY OF UNION WITH
ENGLAND TO THE PRESENT TIME

( I 707- I 907)

BY THE REV.

ALEXANDER MACRAE, M.A.

WITH AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY

SIR HENRY CRAIK
K.C.B., LL.D., M.P.

LONDON: J. M. DENT & CO.
29 BEDFORD STREET, W.C.

MCMVIII

THE TEMPLE PRESS, PRINTERS, LETCHWORTH

PREFACE

The ordinary text-book of Scottish history invariably
ends with the Treaty of Union in 1707 and text-books
of English or British history rarely contain any reference
to Scottish affairs after that event, except perhaps a
brief account of the Jacobite risings of 1715 and 1745.
Scotland, however, did not break away from her own
past at the union, but continued her national history,
not only as an integral part of the British Empire, but
as a separate kingdom. It is indeed with the union that
the proudest and most instructive period of Scottish
history begins, for it was then that Scotland began to
assert her real influence as a nation on the affairs of the
empire and of the world. That influence has been so
great and so beneficial in all departments of human
activity that the story of the development and progress
of the social, industrial, and political life of Scotland
since the union forms one of the most interesting and
instructive chapters of modern history, yet it is a chapter
which is generally but little known even in Scotland.
The reason for this is no doubt to a large extent the
practical absence from our school histories of all reference
to Scotland during this period.

Of late years there has been a revival of interest in
Scottish history and that revival has produced several

vi PREFACE

large and excellent works dealing separately with the
various features of that history during the whole or
parts of the last two centuries, but there is no single
book which gives in brief and convenient form a com-
plete general outline of the whole of that period. The
present volume is an attempt to supply that want and
to provide a much needed book that may serve either
as a text-book for advanced pupils or as a convenient
handbook for the general reader. From both these
points of view, then, it explores, however imperfectly, a
new field and contains materials never before collected
in a single volume.

It need hardly be said that in preparing this volume
the author has availed himself of the works of well-
known recent writers on various features of this period
of Scottish history, but at the same time he has taken
great pains to feel his own way and to find satisfactory
ground for his own views and conclusions by constant
reference to contemporary and original authorities.

A. M.

17th October 1908.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

BY

SIR HENRY CRAIK, K.C.B., LL.D., M.P.

It must be matter of extreme satisfaction to all Scots-
men that the necessity for increased attention being
given to the detailed history of their country is receiving
vigorous and enthusiastic attention. This is not merely
a just concession to those feelings of patriotism which
should animate the lovers of their country, but is essen-
tial to the proper understanding of many phases of our
imperial history, in which Scotsmen have taken a lead-
ing part. The neglect of this aspect of the subject has
done much to injure the proper understanding of Eng-
lish history, and it has tended to obliterate the Scottish
influence in the building up of the empire. It would be
a singular error were such revival of interest in Scottish
national history to be considered to have merely a
provincial motive.

The revival of that interest has taken practical shape
in stimulating the study of Scottish history in our
schools, and in the efforts made for developing that
study in our universities. For the success of the effort,
nothing is more necessary than the provision of text-
books, as adequate aids to the study, and with aims

vii

viii INTRODUCTORY NOTE

larger than merely recording some of the salient features
of the story.

Mr. Macrae's present volume is a notable effort in this
direction and ought to serve an eminently useful pur-
pose in arousing an intelligent interest in an important
phase of Scottish history, and furnishing those who
propose to take up the subject as a university study with
a clear, well-informed, and well-balanced picture of the
chief features of the period with which it deals. I
cordially wish and confidently hope for it wide-spread
acceptance.

HENRY CRAIK.

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

I. Introductory ....... i

II. The Treaty of Union ..... 7

III. The Rebellion of 171 5 . . . 28

IV. 1715-1745 41

V. The Rebellion of 1745 ..... 54

VI. After Culloden ...... 78

VII. Whigs and Tories ...... 93

VIII. Social Life ....... 105

IX. Industry and Commerce . . . . .127

X. Education ....... 144

XI. Literature, Philosophy, and Art . . -154
XII. Religion . . . . . . . 177

Chronicle of Principal Events . . . 209
Prime Ministers, Lord Advocates, and Scottish

Secretaries since the Union . . . 222

Biographical Notes ..... 229

Index ........ 270

IX

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Lord George Murray

John, second Duke of Argyll .

Duncan Forbes of Culloden

John, third Earl of Bute

Henry Dundas, first Viscount Melville

Admiral Viscount Duncan of Camperdown

Francis, Lord Jeffrey

Sir John Sinclair, Bart., of Ulbster

The Rev. Dr. Thomas Reid

The Rev. Dr. Alexander Carlyle

Frontispiece
Facing page 30
81

87
90
96

113

128
177
192

SOME WORKS ON THIS PERIOD OF
SCOTTISH HISTORY

THE UNION
Dr. James Mackinnon. The Union of Scotland and England.

THE JACOBITE RISINGS

The Master of Sinclair. Memoirs of the Rebellion of 1715.
W. K. Dickson. The Jacobite Attempt of 1719.
Robert Chambers. History of the Rebellion of 1745.

SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL

Edward Burt. Letters from a Gentleman in the North of Scotland.

Dr. Alexander Carlyle. Autobiography.

John Ramsay. Scotland and Scotsmen in the 18th century.

General David Stewart. Sketches of the Highlanders.

George, Eighth Duke of Argyll. Scotland as it was and as it is.

LITERATURE

Henry Grey Graham. Scottish Men of Letters in the 18th century.
Dr. James McGosh. The Scottish Philosophy.

ECCLESIASTICAL

Dr. George Grub. Ecclesiastical History of Scotland.
Dr. Robert Herbert Story. Church of Scotland, Past, Present,
and Future.

GENERAL

Sir Walter Scott. Tales of a Grandfather. (Third Series.)

Robert Chambers. Domestic Annals of Scotland. (Vol. iii.)

John Hill Burton. History of Scotland. (Vol. viii.)

Henry Grey Graham. Social Life of Scotland in the 18th century.

William Law Mathieson. History of Scotland, 1695-1747.

Sir Henry Craik. A Century of Scottish History, 1745-1843.

Andrew Lang. History of Scotland. (Vol. iv.)

XI

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
SINCE THE UNION

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY

The death of Queen Elizabeth at Richmond in Surrey,
on March 24, 1603, united the crowns of England and
Scotland in the person of her heir and successor, King
James VI. of Scotland, who then became James I. of
England. But the international differences and dis-
tinctions which had grown up in the course of a thousand
years of hostility and warfare between the two nations
could not be effaced in a day, and another eventful
century had to pass before they became incorporated
into one by the Treaty of Union in 1707. By the union
of the crowns the era of international warfare was
brought to a close, the intercourse between the two
nations became more frequent, and the differences which
divided them in every sphere of life began gradually
to become less pronounced. Thus the great division
which arose among the people of both countries in the
midst of the civil and religious strife of the reign of
Charles I. was not determined simply by national con-
ditions, and England and Scotland stood no longer
arrayed on opposite sides as separate nations. The
division was religious and political and Scotland
became divided into a Royalist and a Parliamentary

2 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

party, which in spite of some important differences were
essentially the same as the corresponding parties in
England.

Under the military despotism established by Crom-
well Scotland was incorporated into England with equal
rights and privileges and treated with strict if somewhat
stern justice. This union brought Scotland not only
peace but a speedy growth of prosperity such as she had
never known before, and so much did she appreciate the
change that she would probably have been satisfied if
the system established by Cromwell had been allowed
to continue. Cromwell's policy was one of justice,
which he endeavoured to carry out in his own way, and
much as it was resented by some of the people of Scot-
land, it had nevertheless the effect of bringing the two
nations perceptibly closer together. In providing a
foretaste of the benefits of free commercial intercourse
it helped in some degree to prepare the way for the
incorporating union of 1707, and there was henceforth
in Scotland a number of men who were in favour of
union with England.

The Restoration of Charles II. in 1660 undid Crom-
well's work. The political union between the two
countries was dissolved. The Scots Estates or Parlia-
ment began to meet as before, and Episcopacy, which
had been abolished by Cromwell, once more became the
state religion of Scotland. Though a majority of the
people of Scotland as a whole were probably quite
willing to accept Episcopacy, and most of the landed
aristocracy and of the better educated classes desired
it, yet the blundering and unstatesmanlike manner in
which the Scottish advisers of the king carried out the
change had the effect of calling forth, more especially

INTRODUCTORY 3

in the south-west of the country, a violent opposition.
In the end the opposition became an armed rising,
which was being put down by Graham of Claverhouse
and his " Highland host " when the Revolution of 1688
brought about another change.

The political and ecclesiastical power now fell into
the hands of the extreme Presbyterians, who became
persecutors in their turn. But as all these changes
were brought about by the Scottish government itself,
the effect was not so much to impair the relations
between the two nations as to accentuate the differences
of religious and political parties among the Scots
themselves. Even the Massacre of Glencoe could not
be said to have endangered those relations, for though
the news of it was received everywhere and by all
parties with horror and execration, yet the people of
Scotland felt that only King William and his principal
Scottish advisers were to blame for it, and its chief
effect was to increase the unpopularity of the king him-
self and to strengthen the Jacobite feeling not only in
Scotland but in England also. Thus the commence-
ment of the reign of William found religious and political
feeling running so high both in England and in Scot-
land, and each party regarding its own opponents with
animosity so intense, that the ancient enmity which
had so long divided the two nations was to a large
extent lost sight of.

But towards the close of his reign the old international
animosity, which for a century had to a large extent
lain dormant, broke out once more. Thus the acces-
sion of Queen Anne in the second year of the eighteenth
century found the relations between England and Scot-
land strained to the very utmost, and nothing seemed

4 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

less likely to be at hand than a union of the two king-
doms. Since the Revolution various causes had been
at work to bring about this state of feeling, but the
chief cause was undoubtedly the disastrous failure of
the Darien expedition — a failure for which the Scots,
not without some reason, blamed King William and
his English Parliament. Ever since the brief period of
commercial freedom enjoyed by their country in the
days of Cromwell the people of Scotland had been
giving some attention to the development of their
commerce and industries, and the peace which followed
the Revolution was a favourable opportunity for
making a vigorous effort to give effect to the reasonable
desire of the nation to secure, by trading, a share in the
wealth of the world. This the Scots could do only by
breaking through the jealous restrictions placed by
the English Parliament upon their commerce, or by
establishing a commercial dominion of their own. The
whole of the trade of England with distant parts of
the world was at this time monopolised by two great
companies — " The East India Company " and " The
African Company " — and though there existed between
them a bitter feud, yet they were always ready to unite
against any intruder upon their privileges, whether he
was Scottish or English.

In 1695 the Scots Estates, acting within their un-
doubted rights, as the parliament of an independent
kingdom, granted a charter for the formation of " The
Company of Scotland trading to Africa and the Indies,"
with a monopoly of the trade of Scotland with Asia,
Africa, and America for thirty-one years. This com-
pany is better known as the Darien Company, because
the founding of a colony on the Isthmus of Darien or

INTRODUCTORY 5

Panama was a prominent part of its plans. As was to
be expected, this new enterprise aroused the jealousy
and the opposition of the great English companies, and
as they were powerful enough to influence the king and
the English Parliament, not only was the support of
England withheld from the Scottish company, but every
possible obstacle was placed in the way of its under-
takings.

The great colony which the Scots attempted to found
on the Isthmus of Panama was to be called New Cale-
donia. It was to have a far-seeing and generous com-
mercial policy. It was to be a free port and an open
market for the commerce of the world, and its promoters,
clearly seeing the possibilities of such a policy, hoped
thus to raise their country to a foremost commercial
position among all nations. Full of such hopes an
expedition consisting of twelve hundred picked men
sailed from Leith in three vessels, on July 26, 1698, to
found the new colony. Another expedition of eighteen
hundred in four ships left the following year. The first
expedition landed at their destination on November 4,
but only to find themselves confronted by unexpected
difficulties. The climate proved unhealthy, the expedi-
tion was badly equipped, and the articles for trade with
the natives were utterly unsuitable. They had no
proper system of government and bitter dissension
soon arose among them. The Spaniards, claiming the
place where they were attempting to settle, made war
against them, and the governors of the English colonies
in the west, acting upon instructions received from
home, issued severe proclamations prohibiting all sub-
jects of the English crown from holding intercourse
with the Scottish colonists, as if they were a band

6 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

of pirates. Meantime amidst many misfortunes and
vicissitudes disease did its own grim work, and on April
ii, 1700, a Spanish attack on a large scale by land and
sea compelled the survivors to abandon the colony
for ever.

Throughout all these misfortunes the English com-
panies maintained active hostilities against the plans
of the Scottish company. The king also held silently
aloof, probably through fear lest a quarrel with Spain
might ruin the plans of his continental policy. The
disastrous failure of the expedition was a great and
humiliating disappointment to Scotland, and the feeling
of indignation called forth against King William and
the English rose to fever heat. Whatever other lessons
these events might have taught, they proved the diffi-
culty, if not the impossibility, of ruling two independent
countries under one crown, and emphasised the neces-
sity for a closer union.

CHAPTER II

THE TREATY OF UNION

England and Scotland, as already stated, had been
united under one government for a few years in Crom-
well's time, but this union was dissolved at the Restora-
tion of King Charles II. in 1660. The benefits of it,
however, short lived as it was, were not forgotten, and
there were henceforth, in both countries, far-seeing
men who wished to restore it. Since the Revolution
of 1688 various proposals for union had been put for-
ward from time to time, but so far were they from
leading to any definite results that at the commence-
ment of the reign of Queen Anne the prospects of union
seemed more hopeless than ever, and at the time when
the last Scottish Parliament was elected nothing could
be more unlikely than that it should ever agree to a
treaty of union with England. That Parliament was
elected under the following circumstances.

When King William died on March 8, 1702, the Con-
vention Parliament x which had been elected at the
Revolution was still sitting, and as the whigs were
anxious to avoid a general election in Scotland because
of the increasing Jacobitism of that country, the Duke
of Queensberry, who was one of their leaders, persuaded
Queen Anne to assemble the old Parliament. When

1 In British history a Convention Parliament is one elected
without the king's writ, as the Parliaments which restored
Charles II. and elected William of Orange king.

7

8 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

Parliament assembled the Duke of Hamilton protested
against the meeting as unconstitutional, and then with-
drew from the house, followed by about eighty members.
The remaining members, about one hundred and
twenty in number, who were nicknamed the " Rump,"
then passed an Act declaring their meeting to be a law-
ful and free session. In reply to a letter from the queen
urging the importance of union, the Rump then passed
an Act appointing commissioners to meet other com-
missioners appointed by the English Parliament, and
to make preliminary arrangements for a treaty of
union. These commissioners failed, however, to arrive
at any understanding and were soon dissolved. So far
the members of the Rump had been unanimous in their
proposals, but when an attempt was made to introduce
a measure requiring all office-holders to abjure the
Pretender great dissension arose among them, and the
Parliament was shortly afterwards dissolved after
sitting for fourteen years.

In the election which followed, during the autumn of
1702, the Earl of Seafield, on behalf of the whigs,
promised the Jacobites that if they supported Queen
Anne they would be admitted to a share of the govern-
ment of the kingdom and receive toleration for their
Episcopalian religion. The result was that the new
Parliament contained a strong party of Jacobites who
were bitterly opposed to the union, because they saw in
it the destruction of all their hopes of a restoration of
the Stuart dynasty, and at their head were two of the
most powerful men in Scotland, the Duke of Hamilton
and the Duke of Atholl. A second party, known as
the Country party or the Squadrone Volante (the Flying
Squadron), consisted of a considerable body of active

THE TREATY OF UNION 9

and able members who had adopted republican prin-
ciples and had their own reasons for objecting to union
with a powerful monarchy like England. The chief
man of this party was Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun.
Stronger, however, than these two parties combined
was the whig or court party. The leader of this party '
was the Duke of Queensberry, who was appointed
Queen's Commissioner and who had several able men
among his supporters.

The first session of the last of the Scottish Parlia-
ments was opened on May 6, 1703, with the pomp and
pageant which were usual on such an occasion. The
stately procession of the Royal Commissioners from
Holyrood Palace up the Canongate and the High Street
to the Parliament House at the opening of a new parlia-
ment was called the " Ryding " of the parliament. In
front rode the sixty-three burgh members dressed in
black velvet and each attended by a lackey. Then
came the shire members, numbering seventy-seven,
more conspicuously dressed and each attended by two
lackeys. Then came the various grades of nobility
arrayed in gorgeous robes and attended by more lackeys
according to their rank, a duke having as many as eight.
After the nobility came heralds bearing the crown, the
sceptre, and the sword of state. Then last of all, accord-
ing to the feudal custom, which in state pageants placed
the higher ranks behind, came the Royal Commissioner
himself, accompanied by a brilliant escort of cavaliers.
The riding of the Scottish Parliament was a display of
which the greatest country in Europe might have been
proud, and a traveller of the period speaks of it as
making a grander appearance than he had ever seen in
any foreign country. It was a spectacle that appealed

io SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

strongly to the pride and patriotism of those who beheld
it and did not occur frequently enough to become too
familiar. As there was no king to represent at the
Opening of the Convention Parliament there had been
no riding since the Parliament that was elected at the
accession of James VII., in 1685, and the present
riding was to be the last.

At this time the feeling against England, which the
Darien disaster had aroused throughout the whole of
Scotland, was at its very highest, and the new Parlia-
ment proceeded at once to place obstacles in the way of
union by passing an " Act for the Security of the King-
dom." This Act provided that, on the death of Queen
Anne without issue, the successor chosen by the English
Parliament should be excluded from the throne of
Scotland unless such conditions of government were
settled as would secure the trade of Scotland from
English or any foreign interference. This Act enjoined
also that all able-bodied men should muster immedi-
ately for military training and that the kingdom should
be placed in a state of defence. The Queen's Commis-
sioner, the Duke of Queensberry, refused to give this Act
the royal assent, which was done by touching an Act
with the sceptre, but it was passed again the following
year, 1704, and so threatening had the attitude of the
Parliament become that the Commissioner dared not
withhold the royal assent any longer. The Scots now
began seriously to prepare once more to give battle to
the ancient English enemy unless their reasonable
demand for commercial equality was granted.

As Englishmen and Scotsmen enjoyed the privileges
of citizenship when residing in each other's countries,
the English Parliament replied to the Scottish Act of

THE TREATY OF UNION . n

Security by threatening to treat Scotsmen resident
in England as aliens deprived of all the privileges of a
free-born Englishman, and to stop the importation into
England of cattle, coal, and linen, which were the chief
products of Scotland, until both kingdoms could agree
to accept the same successor to the throne.

While the international feeling was thus becoming
more and more strained, a Scottish ship, The Annandale.,
bound for India, was seized in the Thames, at the
instance of the English East India Company, for an
alleged breach of the company's rules. Shortly after-
wards, in August 1704, a large English vessel, The
Worcester, under Captain Green, put into the Firth of
Forth for repairs, and some of her crew, while drinking
on shore, spoke in a way which led to a suspicion that
The Worcester was a pirate and had robbed a long
missing ship, The Speedy Return, belonging to the
Scottish East India, or Darien, Company. On this
suspicion, the secretary of the company, Mr. Roderick
Mackenzie, seized the crew of The Worcester and brought
them to trial. They were sentenced to death, but as the
evidence on which they were condemned was imperfect
the queen ordered a respite so that further inquiry
might be made. In the meantime, however, the
Scotch Privy Council weakly yielded to the clamour
of the Edinburgh mob and Captain Green with two of
his crew were hanged on Leith sands in April 1705.
Though there is strong reason for believing that Captain
Green and his crew had been guilty of piracy, yet they
were probably not guilty of the seizure of The Speedy
Return. These violent and illegal proceedings naturally
gave great offence in England and were almost a
beginning of war.

12 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

It was impossible for such strained relations to con-
tinue for any length of time, and to the wiser and
calmer statesmen of England it was becoming more and
more evident that the only possible choice was either
war or commercial equality. The possible results of a
war, after a century of international peace, were too
terrible to contemplate, and whatever the issue of it
might be it could prove in no sense advantageous to
either country. Scotland was still a separate and in-
dependent kingdom with a perfect right to regulate
her commerce as she pleased, and to found colonies
wherever she could, and, in spite of the failure of the
Darien expedition, the enterprise and liberality which
she was beginning to show in her industrial and com-
mercial undertakings made the English feel that their
trading interests would be likely to suffer more from
Scotland as a free competitor than from Scotland as an
incorporated partner.

Accordingly, when the English Parliament met in
1705 they immediately proceeded to the serious con-
sideration of the question of union. The queen was
authorised to appoint commissioners with power to
treat about the question with any body of commis-
sioners authorised by the Scottish Parliament, and to
report their proceedings to the queen and to both
Parliaments. After much discussion and no small
display of party feeling, the Scottish Parliament re-
solved to follow the example set by the English and
authorised the queen and her chief minister, Lord
Godolphin, to select a body of commissioners to repre-
sent Scotland in the proposed deliberations. Both
Parliaments made it a condition that the commis-
sioners should not propose any change in the worship,

THE TREATY OF UNION 13

discipline, or government of either of the national
churches as by law established. The commissioners,
numbering thirty-one for each country, began their
sittings at Whitehall on April 16, 1706, under the pre-
sidency of Lord Somers, a man of integrity and
honour, to whose tact and wisdom the success of
their labours was largely due, and the queen, who
was most anxious to see the union accomplished,
occasionally encouraged them by her presence at their
meetings.

The Scottish commissioners were in favour of a
federal 1 union, which would still leave them their
parliament ; the English, however, were wisely resolved
to have an incorporating union — one kingdom, one
parliament, one successor — as the only form of union
worth striving for, and the Scottish commissioners
finally yielded on condition that there should be com-
plete reciprocity of citizenship and trading privileges
between the two countries. Some difficulty was ex-
perienced in arranging the details of taxation and of
parliamentary representation, but the deliberations of
the Commission were marked throughout by wisdom
and judgment and by an earnest desire to promote the
national interests of both kingdoms; and in spite of
the difficulties they had to face, they brought their
arduous labours to a close on July 23 by presenting to
the queen a draft of the treaty which they had drawn
up. In thanking them the queen expressed the hope
that the treaty would at once be approved by both
Parliaments, and that the union, which would be of

1 A federal union or government is one in which two or more
states, while independent in home affairs, join together for
national and foreign purposes, as in the United States.

14 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

such great security and advantage to both kingdoms,
would be accomplished in her reign.

On October 3, 1706, the Royal Commissioner, the
Duke of Queensberry, proceeded in state up the High
Street to open what was to prove the last session of the
Scottish Parliament. The Scottish Parliament was to
have precedence in considering the proposed Treaty of
Union, and Queensberry had been chosen to carry the
measure through. The task that lay before him was
one of no ordinary difficulty, for the change to be accom-
plished was greater perhaps than had ever before been
brought about in any country by peaceful legislation.
His conduct amply justified the choice, and it is univers-
ally admitted that it was his calmness, sagacity, and
courage that preserved the nation from bloodshed, and
carried to a peaceful and satisfactory issue the bitter
controversy by which the whole of Scotland was soon
to be convulsed. Foremost among Queensberry's
supporters was John Dalrymple, Earl of Stair, to whose
eloquence and statesmanship in Parliament, notwith-
standing his unpopularity as the author of the Glencoe
Massacre, the cause of union was largely indebted for
its final triumph. Other prominent supporters were
the Earl of Mar, the Earl of Marchmont, the Duke of
Argyll, and the Earl of Seafield. Among the chief
opponents of the union were the two Jacobite leaders,
the Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland,
and the Duke of Atholl, both of them men of great
ability and great influence, and the Marquis of Tweed-
dale and Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun, the leaders of
the Squadrone Volante.

As soon as Parliament met there arose throughout
the whole of Scotland a noisy and alarming opposition.

THE TREATY OF UNION 15

Of this opposition the Jacobites were the chief in-
stigators, and they found ample support of a noisy and
disorganised nature throughout the country. The
extreme section of Presbyterians, known as the
Cameronians, objected to any union with a nation in
which prelacy was a state institution, and were ex-
horted in their opposition both by the Episcopalians and
the Roman Catholics. The tradesmen of Edinburgh felt
that the union would deprive them of their parliamen-
tary customers, and as the deliberations proceeded the
attitude of the crowds that congregated in the streets
became so threatening that they had to be held in check
by the military. There were also some disturbances
in Glasgow, and an effort was made to bring about a
joint insurrection of such antagonistic factions as the
Highland Jacobites and the Cameronians, but the
presence of traitors among the latter prevented the
effort from succeeding.

Early in January, as the measure was approaching its
conclusion, the Jacobites resolved to make their last
great effort to defeat it, under the leadership of the
Duke of Hamilton ; but when the critical moment
arrived the duke failed them and further opposition
was now felt to be of no avail. Thus the Act ratifying
the Treaty of Union was finally carried by one hundred
and ten votes to sixty-nine on January 16, 1707. After
settling various other miscellaneous matters the Scots
Parliament adjourned on March 25 never to meet again,
and was finally dissolved on April 28.

The political feeling of Scotland at the time of this
dissolution ran so high that it was considered prudent
to avoid the excitement of a general election, and the
Scottish members for the united Parliament, which

16 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

met on the 6th of the following November, were chosen
from the representatives of the Commons in the late
Parliament. The Scottish Chancellor, the Earl of Sea-
field, has been often accused of unbecoming levity for
remarking as he signed the official copy of the Act of
Union, which was done on March 19, that it was the
end of an old song ; but an assumed levity of manner
may sometimes serve as a cloak for deep feeling, and
there can be no doubt that the support which carried
the union through the Scots Parliament was often given
at a great sacrifice of national and patriotic sentiment,
but its supporters felt that the union would be for the
benefit of their country and time has proved the sound-
ness and wisdom of their judgment.

In passing through the Scots Parliament the articles
of treaty underwent several important changes, but
the English Parliament wisely decided to accept them
as they were. The Scots had thus the satisfaction of
putting the measure into the exact form in which it was
finally adopted. As the government had come to an
understanding with the great trading companies from
whom the old powerful opposition against union had
proceeded, there was little or no opposition expected
from the English people. The tories and the extreme
churchmen, however, were prepared to offer strenuous
opposition in Parliament, but the Attorney-General,
Sir Simon Harcourt, cleverly thwarted their intentions,
and the measure passed quickly through both Houses
and received the royal assent on March 6, to come into
effect on May 1, 1707. The satisfaction of the queen
was expressed in a speech from the throne, in which
she truly declared the union to be a matter of the
greatest importance to the wealth, strength, and safety

THE TREATY OF UNION 17

of the whole island, and a measure that would be re-
membered and spoken of thereafter to the honour of
those who had been instrumental in bringing it to such
a happy conclusion. She desired and expected her
subjects of both nations to act thenceforth with all
public respect and kindness to one another, that so it
might appear to all the world that they had hearts
disposed to become one people.

The Treaty of Union has been called the happy
climax of the great romance of Scottish history, and
from whatever point of view it is contemplated, whether
we consider the patience, the tact, and the sagacity
with which the statesmen of both countries faced the
national prejudices and other enormous difficulties
which had to be overcome, the spirit they displayed
during their long and arduous deliberations, the fair-
ness and equity of the measure itself, or the peace,
prosperity, and satisfaction which it helped eventually
to bring to both nations — in short, whichever way we
consider the Act itself and its results, it stands forth as
perhaps the greatest and most successful of all legis-
lative achievements.

The treaty contained twenty-five articles, the chief
of which may thus be summarised: —

(I.) On May i, 1707, and for ever after, the kingdoms
of England and Scotland should be united into one
kingdom under the name of Great Britain.

(2.) The succession to the throne of Great Britain
should be in the Electress Sophia of Hanover and in her
heirs, being Protestants.

(3.) Great Britain should be governed by one Parlia-
ment.

(4.) Scotland should be represented in Parliament by

B

18 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

sixteen peers, to be elected out of and by their own body
for each new Parliament, and forty-five members of
the House of Commons.

(5.) All rights of trade, free intercourse, and citizen-
ship should be the same for both countries.

(6.) All customs, duties, and laws relating to trade
should be the same for both countries. All other laws
of Scotland should remain as they were, but might be
changed by the Parliament of Great Britain. The
Court of Session and other law courts should also remain
as they were.

(7.) The Established Presbyterian Church of Scotland
should be maintained without any change.

(8.) The national flag of Great Britain should be
formed by a junction of the crosses of St. Andrew and
St. George — the Union Jack.

As the result of elaborate calculations it was agreed
that the English Parliament should pay Scotland a
sum of £398,000. This sum is known as the " Equiva-
lent " and was used to buy up the shares of the Darien
Company, which was then dissolved, and to compensate
Scotland by paying off her debts and in other ways, for
loss caused by the adoption of the English coinage, and
for the large increase caused in her taxes by their ad-
justment with those of England. When the money
grrived in Edinburgh the mob, thinking it was a bribe,
broke out into a riot, for the belief was prevalent among
the people of Scotland that their Parliament had been
bribed to vote for the union. The charge of bribery,
which was diligently circulated by the Jacobites at the
time, has since been carefully and minutely examined,
and has been completely disproved. There was no
bribery used to any appreciable extent.

THE TREATY OF UNION 19

At the time of the union the population of England
was about six millions and the yearly revenue
£5,700,000. The population of Scotland was about one
million and the revenue only £160,000.

It was not to be expected that such a great change as
the union, however carefully and equitably planned,
could all at once allay the strained feeling that had so
long existed between the two countries, and of which
there had recently been such an alarming revival; nor
is it surprising that the actual carrying out of the treaty
revealed defects which its authors had failed to foresee.
Consequently, the years immediately succeeding the
union saw little or no improvement in the old relations
between the two kingdoms, and to make matters worse
there occurred various international incidents which
had the effect of creating, at all events in Scotland,
a' strong desire to have the union repealed. The
Jacobites did all they could to foster this feeling, and
during the latter years of Queen Anne's reign the un-
popularity of the union had the effect of greatly in-
creasing their influence.

The first difficulty that arose as a result of the union
was a commercial dispute. As soon as it became clear
that the union was about to be accomplished, English
and Scottish capitalists began to import stores of goods
into Scotland, where the duties were small, in order to
be sent, after the Act of Union came into force, as free
goods into England, and so avoid payment of the
English duties, which were much heavier. English
merchants went even so far as to send into Scotland
goods on which export bounties were paid. The bounty
was claimed until May 1, and the goods then taken back
duty free to England. The result was that on May 1

20 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

fleets of ships bearing this so-called Scottish merchandise
began to sail into the Thames. To this mode of im-
portation the London merchants strongly objected,
maintaining that it was an undue straining of the terms
of the treaty. The English Board of Customs took up
their cause and confiscated the merchandise as smuggled
goods. Such an incident was not calculated to im-
prove the popular feeling in either country, but when
the matter came before Parliament it was resolved for
the sake of peace to admit the goods duty free, as the
loss to the revenue was only small and the fraud was
one that could not be repeated, the duties in Scotland
being now the same as in England.

But there were various other circumstances which
arose in Scotland as results of the union and led to
much more serious irritation. To begin with, the taxes
were very greatly increased, and that, under any cir-
cumstances, would have been a grievance. Matters
were aggravated also by the fact that the management
and collection of the taxes were entrusted to English-
men, who brought with them a large number of sub-
ordinates, many of whom were men of low character
whose ignorance and want of tact caused much un-
necessary annoyance. It was also found necessary,
largely as a result of the new system of taxation, to
supplement the hereditary jurisdiction exercised by the
territorial aristocracy by the appointment of justices
of the peace as in England.

While the negotiations for union were still going on,
and the War of the Spanish Succession, with the Duke
of Marlborough's great battles, was being fought out
between England and France on the continent, Louis
XIV. began to consider whether he could create diffi-

THE TREATY OF UNION 21

culties for England by stirring up a Jacobite rising in
Scotland. The unpopularity of the union was con-
sidered to provide a favourable opportunity for en-
couraging such a rising, and Lieutenant-Colonel Hooke,
a Jacobite Englishman in the French service, was
sent to Scotland on a mission of inquiry in April 1707.
The Duke of Atholl, who was head of the Highland
Jacobites, gave the French emissary a reassuring
account of the Jacobite cause and held out prospects of
success, but the Duke of Hamilton, who was head of
the Jacobite party in the south, was less confident.
Hooke's report, however, was considered favourable.
He found the country quite defenceless, and the
Jacobites prepared to raise a force of 25,000 foot
and 5000 horse, if the French would come to
their aid with money and an army of at least 5000
men. The people were everywhere opposed to the
union with England and well disposed to the Stuart
cause.

Louis considered the opportunity to be favourable,
and it was arranged that the Chevalier de St. George,
as Prince James was then generally called, should start
from Dunkirk with an army of 6000 men in a fleet under
the command of the Comte de Forbin. The Jacobites
hoped that the expedition would be under the com-
mand of the chevalier's half-brother, the Duke of
Berwick, who held a high command for France in the
War of the Spanish Succession and was one of the most
distinguished generals of the day. Preparations were
commenced at Dunkirk in January 1708, but when the
expedition was about to sail the chevalier was taken ill
with measles and the delay caused by his illness ruined
all chances of success. By the time the French ships

22 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

were ready to start a powerful English fleet under Sir
George Byng had put to sea and was now lying before
Dunkirk to intercept them. But the English fleet was
driven away by stress of weather and on March 17 the
French managed to put out to sea. In a few days they
sailed into the Firth of Forth and on the 24th cast
anchor before Crail on the Fife coast, intending on the
next day to land the chevalier and the troops in the
vicinity of Edinburgh. But Sir George Byng was in
close pursuit and entered the Firth of Forth only a few
hours after the French, who were soon compelled to put
out to sea again. The chevalier earnestly entreated
Forbin to attempt a landing elsewhere, but his
entreaties were disregarded and the expedition returned
to Dunkirk.

Meanwhile the Jacobites were in a state of great
elation, while the supporters of the government were
in extreme alarm. The Earl of Leven, who was in
command of the troops in Scotland, drew up his handful
of men on the sands of Leith in no small anxiety as to
their ability to resist the landing of the invaders, but
soon discovered, to his great relief, that the ships in
view were not those of the French but Byng's fleet,
before which the French had already fled. The
Jacobites, who had been looking forward to certain
victory, were now greatly disconcerted, and many of
them suspected that the French expedition was never
intended by Louis to be anything more than a feint to
alarm the British government and to induce them to
withdraw some of their troops from the continent. In
these suspicions they were probably right, for Louis
supported the cause of the exiled Stuarts only so far as
it suited his own purposes. So ended the first attempt

THE TREATY OF UNION 23

of the Jacobite party to restore the ancient royal
family of Scotland.

In anticipation of the arrival of Forbin's expedition,
a number of gentlemen in Stirlingshire assembled a body
of horse and marched towards Edinburgh in order to
be the first to offer themselves for the service of the
chevalier, but on hearing of the failure of the expedi-
tion they returned to their homes. Shortly afterwards
they were arrested and brought to trial for high treason,
but the jury refused to convict them. A number of
others, among them some noblemen of the highest rank,
had been arrested on suspicion, but in view of the
failure of this trial the government decided that it was
useless to take proceedings against them and so ordered
their release.

The failure to convict the Stirlingshire gentlemen of
the treason of which they were so evidently guilty
provided the government with an excuse for some
important changes, which were carried out by an " Act
for rendering the union of the two kingdoms more
entire and complete " in 1709. The treason laws of
Scotland were assimilated to those of England, so that,
instead of being tried before the ordinary courts of
justice, cases of treason should henceforth be tried by
a court of specially appointed commissioners, which
should always include one of the Scottish judges. This
new law gave the government the advantage of choosing
the commissioners, but, on the other hand, it was made
much more definite and exact than the old law, which
left too much to the arbitrary pleasure of the judges.
It also provided that after the death of the chevalier a
man guilty of high treason should forfeit only his life
interest in an estate, that is to say, his heirs should not

24 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

be disinherited. At the same time the Scottish Privy
Council, with its irresponsible powers, which had so
often been used as instruments of tyranny and oppres-
sion, was' swept away, and circuit criminal courts were
arranged to be held at regular intervals of time through-
out the country. These courts did not come into full
operation, however, until after the Battle of Culloden.

But although these changes were all of them un-
doubted improvements and of great advantage to the
subject, yet the manner in which they were made only
helped to increase the national irritation. The Treaty
of Union contained no reference to the House of Lords
as the supreme law court for Scotland, and the first
appeal to it from the Court of Session in 171 1 came as a
national surprise. The right of appeal to the House of
Lords has exercised a great and beneficial influence
upon the administration of justice in Scotland, and
never were its powers asserted more truly in the spirit
of justice than in reversing the decision of the Court of
Session on this first occasion, when the appellant was
an Episcopalian minister, the Rev. James Greenshields,
who had been imprisoned for using the English prayer-
book in his meeting-house in Edinburgh, but the right
of appeal was regarded with great disfavour in Scotland
at the time by the more intolerant Presbyterians,
because in this particular case the judgment of their
own church courts was reversed, and by all classes
because there was a fear getting abroad that the national
institutions of Scotland would gradually be abolished
by the united Parliament.

In 1710 the whig influence, which had been pre-
dominant at court ever since the Revolution, was over-
thrown and the tories came into power. As a result of

THE TREATY OF UNION 25

this change there arose hew developments, which had
the effect of arousing the alarm of the Scottish Church.
The ministers of the Presbyterian Church were invari-
ably whigs in politics and strongly opposed to the
Jacobites, who formed an important section of the tory
party now in power, and who soon succeeded in making
their influence felt. In 1712 an Act of Toleration allow-
ing the Scots Episcopalians to use the English prayer-
book was hurriedly passed through both Houses of
Parliament, in spite of the earnest remonstrances of the
Presbyterians, and in the same year the territorial
patronage, which had been abolished at the Revolution,
was once more restored. This Act was held to con-
stitute a breach of the Treaty of Union, which provided
that the Scottish Church should continue " unalterable
in her worship, doctrine, and government in all succeed-
ing generations." It proved a fruitful source of trouble
in Scotch ecclesiastical politics, and has never been
admitted as valid by the more extreme sects among the
Presbyterians.

In this way, then, the union was regarded with an
almost universal feeling of dk. on tent throughout the
whole of Scotland. The nobles felt themselves deprived
of their ancient powers and privileges. The Presby-
terian clergy were alarmed by the innovations that had
been forced upon them. The lawyers saw the decisions
of the Scottish courts reversed by the British House of
Lords. The merchants, tradesmen, and farmers were
affected by the increased taxation, while the money of
the country, scarce enough already, was being drawn
away to meet the increased expenses of the nobles and
members of Parliament, who were migrating to London.
Even the loss of the profitable smuggling trade which

26 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

used to be carried on with England was felt to be a
grievance. The nobles and gentlemen who went up to
the British Parliament in London complained of the
treatment they received there from the English mem-
bers. They were made use of as party tools and then
cast aside when no longer useful for party purposes.
Their manners and their speech were ridiculed. They
were despised for their poverty, and all their efforts to
secure attention to the wants and necessities of Scotland
were as a rule unsuccessful.

It was only natural, however, that the disadvantages
of the union should be felt before its benefits became
fully apparent. But the disadvantages were only
temporary and would soon pass away, whereas the
benefits were permanent and would increase as time
passed, so that in spite of all disappointment and dis-
content, the nation was not only becoming reconciled
to the change, but preparing to take full advantage of
the favourable conditions which the union had created
and to make rapid progress, as we shall find, in power,
in wealth, and in civilisation.

The revulsion of feeling against the union reached a
climax in 1713, when a motion was made in the House
of Lords to repeal it. The chief actor in this movement
was George Lockhart of Carnwath, in Lanarkshire, and
the occasion was the imposition of a tax on malt.
There was no malt tax in Scotland before, but the Act
of Union provided for the extension of such a tax to
Scotland at the close of the war. The war had just
ended with the Peace of Utrecht, and Parliament pro-
ceeded forthwith to impose the tax. The opposition
offered by the Scottish members in both Houses was
determined and bitter, but at the same time quite in-

THE TREATY OF UNION 27

defensible, as the tax had already been sanctioned by
the commissioners who represented Scotland in drawing
up the Treaty of Union, and in spite of the united
opposition of the Scottish members of all parties the
measure was passed. The motion for the repeal of the
union was brought forward in the House of Lords in
June 1713, when the excitement about the malt tax
was at its highest, by Lord Findlater, the same man
who as Lord Seafield had been Chancellor of Scotland
at the time of the union. It was supported by the Duke
of Argyll and the Earl of Mar, both of whom had been
advocates of the union, and the English whigs were
prepared to vote for the undoing of their own work in
the hope of embarrassing the tory government. The
debate on Lord Findlater's motion was very animated,
but the motion was finally rejected, though only by a
very small majority, and the union was saved.

CHAPTER III

THE REBELLION OF 1715

Whatever the feeling among the Lowland gentlemen of
Scotland may have been at this time, there could be no
doubt that the great majority of the Highland chiefs
were strongly Jacobite, and in order to ensure their
continued allegiance to that cause a sum of money was
yearly distributed among them, towards the close of
Queen Anne's reign, by the tory government, who, like
the queen herself, were in favour of the succession of
her brother, the chevalier. The distribution of this
money was entrusted to the Earl of Mar as secretary of
state for Scotland. The Duke of Argyll denounced it as
making the Highlands a hotbed of rebellion, but the
government justified their action by pointing to the
example of King William, who allowed yearly pensions
to the chiefs of the clans in order to keep them quiet.

When Queen Anne died on August i, 1714, the
Jacobites in Scotland as well as in England were, as
usual, disunited and unready, while the whigs, acting
with firmness and unanimity, seized the power which
until then had belonged to their opponents, and on
August 5 King George was proclaimed with great pomp
and solemnity at the Market Cross of Edinburgh. The
new king landed at Greenwich on September 17, and
both whigs and tories seemed ready to receive him as
their rightful sovereign, but his preference for the whigs,

28

THE REBELLION OF 1715 29

who had always supported his title to the throne, soon
became very apparent. Among those who went to
offer him their allegiance on his arrival was the Earl of
Mar, who proposed also to present an address of loyalty
from some of the leading Highland chiefs ; but he was
informed that the king refused to receive the address,
alleging that it had been drawn up at the court of the
Pretender, and Mar was forthwith commanded to resign
his office as secretary of state for Scotland. The con-
duct of the king in refusing to receive these advances
was extremely impolitic, but the blame must rest more
especially with his whig advisers, who thus became to a
large extent responsible for the civil war which followed.
Thus repulsed so ignominiously in his advances to the
new king, and believing that his ruin was intended, Mar
resolved to make himself the leader of an armed attempt
to replace the Stuart family on the throne. He lingered
for some time in London, but on August 2, 1715, he set
out in disguise for Scotland. Arriving at his Braemar
home in Aberdeenshire on August 20, he invited a
number of leading Jacobites to a great hunting party
to be held on the 26th. Among the noblemen who
either attended this gathering in person, or pledged
themselves to give support, were the Marquis of Huntly,
eldest son of the Duke of Gordon, the Marquis of Tulli-
bardine, eldest son of the Duke of Atholl, the Earl of
Nithsdale, the Earl Marischal, the Earl of Seaforth,
Viscount Kenmure, Lord Strathallan, the Chief of Glen-
garry, and many other chiefs and noblemen from all
parts of the country. As the agent by whom their
pension from government had been distributed, Mar
naturally had great influence among the Highland
nobles and chiefs, who formed the majority of this

30 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

great hunting party. At his instigation, therefore, a
rising was readily resolved upon, and 'the Jacobite
leaders, mustering their followers with all speed, raised
the royal standard on September 6. About the same
time the chevalier was proclaimed as King James VIII.
of Scotland and III. of England at Aberdeen, Inver-
ness, Dundee, and various other places.

While these events were going on in the Highlands
and the rising spreading to other parts of Scotland, a
bold and well-laid plot planned by Lord John Drum-
mond, son of the titular Duke of Perth, for the capture
of Edinburgh Castle on the night of September '8 was all
but successful. Meantime the government was hastily
adopting measures for defence by concentrating such
few troops as were then in Scotland at Stirling in order
to prevent Mar from crossing to the south of the Forth.
Measures were also taken to reduce the influence of the
Highland chiefs and to encourage loyalty among their
followers by the Clan Act, which was passed on August
30, and which not only released all vassals and de-
pendents from obligation to obey their superior lord if
he should happen to engage in a rebellion or be guilty
of high treason, but provided certain rewards at his
expense to such vassals and dependents as should in
such a case remain loyal to the crown.

On September 14 the Duke of Argyll, who had been
appointed Commander-in-Chief in Scotland, arrived at
Stirling, and on the 16th the important town of Perth
fell into the hands of the Jacobites. Here Mar fixed
his headquarters and assembled his followers, who at the
outset numbered about 5000 men. They had, however,
but a limited supply of arms, but on October 2 the
Master of Sinclair, one of Mar's officers, cleverly seized,

JOHN CAMPBELL, 2ni> Duke of Argyll.

THE REBELLION OF 1715 31

at Burntisland, a ship containing a large number of
firelocks and other weapons which were being sent to
the loyal Earl of Sutherland for the use of his followers.
This capture helped to supply the deficiency of weapons
among Mar's followers.

The rapidity with which the rising spread over the
whole of Scotland shows how strong the Jacobite in-
fluence was at this time throughout the country. It
was strong not only in Scotland but in England also,
and in the hands of more competent leaders the Re-
bellion of 1715 might have led to a second restoration
of the House of Stuart. But as a general Mar was quite
incompetent, and he wasted valuable time and oppor-
tunities at Perth, while his able and active opponent,
the Duke of Argyll, was making vigorous preparations
to intercept him at Stirling. Mar's army was described
as " an army of lions led by a deer."

Meantime the rising was spreading rapidly in the
south of Scotland under Viscount Kenmure, the Earl of
Nithsdale, and the Earl of Wintoun, and in the north of
England under Thomas Forster, M.P. for Northumber-
land, and the Earl of Derwentwater. As Mar hesitated
to force his own way southward against the Duke of
Argyll, he despatched a body of 2500 troops across the
Firth of Forth under Brigadier Mackintosh of Borlum,
in Inverness-shire, to aid the Jacobite insurgents of the
south, who had been joined by a body of cavalry from
England. Mackintosh was an able soldier and had
been trained to continental warfare in the service of
France. He accomplished the passage of the Forth on
the nights of October 12 and 13 with very little loss, in
the face of some ships of war, and mustered his troops
again in Haddington. From there he marched on

32 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

October 14 towards Edinburgh, which was saved by
the promptitude of the Duke of Argyll, who arrived at
the West Port only when Mackintosh was already
within a mile of the other side of the city. But the
duke was soon forced to return in order to meet a
threatened attack on Stirling by Mar. Mackintosh
was thus able to make good his escape, and marching to
the south joined Forster and Kenmure, and occupied
Kelso on October 22. Their united forces amounted to
about 1400 foot and 600 horse. Here they proclaimed
King James VIII. and held a council of war. Mackin-
tosh's proposal was to move westward and seize Dum-
fries, Ayr, and Glasgow, and so open the way south to a
considerable force of Argyllshire clansmen there as-
sembled under General Alexander Gordon. This would
compel the Duke of Argyll with his small force to
abandon his position at Stirling and leave the way open
for the advance of Mar to the south. Through the in-
decision of Forster and his friends this counsel was
rejected until it was too late, and after wasting a week
in fruitless disputes it was finally resolved to march
west along the Border and then turn south into Lan-
cashire, where the Jacobites were reported to be ready
to rise in large numbers as soon as an opportunity was
afforded them. The Highlanders were very unwilling
to cross the Border on what seemed to them such an
unpromising expedition, and many of them deserted.
The Border was crossed, however, on October 29, under
the inefficient command of Forster, who knew nothing
of military matters, and they reached Preston on
November 10, without encountering any serious opposi-
tion, but without receiving any of the support which
they were told to expect. Here they were attacked on

THE REBELLION OF 1715 33

November 12 by General Carpenter and General Wills,
with large forces, and after some fierce fighting, which
lasted through the night and in which Mackintosh and
his Highlanders gave a good account of themselves, the
Jacobite troops were forced next day to make an un-
conditional surrender. The prisoners numbered about
400 English and 1000 Scots, including eight noblemen.

Mar's excuse for remaining so long inactive at Perth
was that he was waiting for the arrival of all his rein-
forcements. The Earl of Seaforth, who could muster
over 2000 men among his own followers, was prevented
for some time from taking the field by the Earl of
Sutherland, who had assembled a small force at Alness
in Ross-shire, which held Seaforth's followers in check
until they became strong enough to force Sutherland to
withdraw to his own country. Seaforth was then able
to march to Perth with a following from among his own
and neighbouring clans of about 4000. About the
same time General Alexander Gordon arrived with the
western clans from Argyllshire, where he had been
detained for some time by orders from Mar to seize but
not to destroy Inverary Castle, the seat of the Duke of
Argyll, and to arm his followers with the weapons there.
Having failed in his efforts to do so, Gordon set out
towards Perth. Mar had now received all the rein-
forcements that he could hope for. A French expedi-
tion, which was expected to make a descent on the
coast of England, had come to nothing, and the Jacobite
rising which was promised in England had not taken
place. Clearly there was no longer any excuse for
delay, and on November 10 Mar broke up his quarters
at Perth and advanced against Argyll. At Auchterarder,
on the march from Perth, he was deserted by the whole

c

34 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

of the clan Fraser. This was by order of their chief,
Lord Lovat, who had just returned from exile, and,
assuming the chieftainship of his clan, concluded that
his interest for the time being was to support the
government of King George.

The two armies met on the morning of Sunday,
November 13, on Sheriffmuir, near Dunblane. Argyll
had less than 4000 men, but they were well disciplined
and under able command. Mar had 'nearly three times
as many, and under a more effective leadership they
would have swept their opponents off the field. The
charge of the Highlanders was, as usual, furious and
formidable, and the left of Argyll's army was routed
with heavy slaughter, but his right wing, which he
commanded in person, though somewhat staggered by
the attack of Mar's left, stood its ground, and before
the Highlanders could renew their charge against it,
they were attacked across a frozen marsh on their left
flank by Argyll's cavalry and thrown into confusion.
These Highlanders made several attempts to rally but
were finally routed. In pursuing the retreating left of
Mar's army, Argyll ran the risk of being taken in the
rear by Mar's victorious right, but Mar failed to seize
the opportunity and part of his cavalry remained in-
active during the battle. " Oh for one hour of Dundee ! "
exclaimed an old Highland chief, Gordon of Glen-
bucket, Aberdeenshire, as he saw Mar's opportunities
slipping away. The outlaw Rob Roy Macgregor, who
had joined Mar's army as the spy of the Duke of Argyll,
was present at the head of a strong party and naturally
played the traitor. The victorious Highlanders of
Mar's right drew up on a neighbouring eminence, and
threats of defiance passed between themselves and

THE REBELLION OF 1715 35

Argyll's men as they returned from the pursuit of Mar's
left, but the battle was not renewed, and so the day
ended without a decisive result.

During the night Argyll made preparations to renew
the battle next morning, but Mar retired to Perth,
leaving his dead and wounded on the field. About 800
were killed on Mar's side, including the young Earl of
Strathmore and the young Chief of Clanranald. Argyll
lost in killed and wounded about 650, among them the
Earl of Forfar. Many men of high rank were among
the wounded on both sides. In their charge the High-
landers displayed that same courage which made them
so famous in the days of Montrose and Dundee, but
after the battle many of them deserted, some to secure
their booty, which on this occasion was rather meagre,
others because they looked on Mar's retreat as a sign of
defeat. The honours of victory were thus left to the
Duke of Argyll, who in preventing Mar from passing
to the south rendered the government an invaluable
service.

While Mar and his dispirited followers were helplessly
awaiting the issue of events at Perth, their perplexity
was greatly increased by the news that, on December
22, the chevalier had landed at Peterhead. His journey
southward was delayed at Feteresso, where Mar had
gone to meet him, by an attack of ague, and he did not
reach Perth until January 6. His arrival did little to
revive the drooping spirits of those who were there to
hail him as their king. They were greatly disappointed
with his manner and appearance, and some of them,
when they observed his feeble frame and listless atti-
tude, could hardly refrain from giving expression to a
feeling of contempt. He was, however, in many ways

36 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

a man of character and ability, and might conceivably
have proved a successful monarch, but his good qualities
were not of the kind that appeal to soldiers ; the cir-
cumstances under which he met his supporters could
hardly be more unfavourable, and it is therefore not
altogether surprising that his appearance among them
failed to inspire their confidence.

The chevalier took up his quarters at Scone Palace,
where he assumed the state and character of king and
issued several proclamations. He fixed January 23 as
the date for his coronation, and Jacobite ladies began
to contribute their jewels as materials for a crown.
When it became evident that Argyll was about to
advance on Perth it was resolved, much against the wish
of the chevalier, that Auchterarder, Crieff, and other
villages on the way between Stirling and Perth should
be burned and destroyed, lest they should afford
quarters to Argyll's troops in their advance. The order
was ruthlessly carried out, and the unoffending in-
habitants turned out of their homes and deprived of
their stores in the depth of an exceptionally severe
winter. This violent measure created alarm among all
parties and was condemned even by the chevalier's own
followers.

While Mar's force was daily diminishing, Argyll's was
steadily increasing. Considerable reinforcements of
Dutch and English troops had been received, and on
January 29 Argyll broke up his quarters at Stirling and
advanced towards Perth. Such Highlanders as were
still remaining with Mar were eager to wait for the
duke's arrival and to fight, but neither Mar himself nor
the unhappy chevalier shared the courage of their
followers, and on January 30, the anniversary of the

THE REBELLION OF 1715 37

execution of King Charles I., the Jacobite army began
to retreat from Perth by marching across the frozen
Tay. Next day the Duke of Argyll's dragoons marched
into the town and took possession of it. The High-
landers directed their march towards Aberdeen, but at
Montrose, on February 4, the chevalier and Mar escaped
secretly to the seashore, where a boat was waiting to
convey them to a French vessel which was there to
receive them, and a few days afterwards they landed
safely at Gravelines in France on February 10. Before
embarking the chevalier left a sum of money and wrote
to Argyll imploring him, as a lover of his country, to use it
for repairing the loss of the inhabitants of the burned
villages. The letter, however, was not sent.

The remnant of Mar's army was led by General
Gordon to Aberdeen, where they arrived on February 6
and were immediately disbanded. The main body of
the fugitives proceeded to Ruthven, in Badenoch, and
there broke up. Some of the leading men made their
escape to France, others to the Orkney Islands, whence
they sailed to Sweden and entered the service of Charles
XII. The clans dispersed to their homes the best way
they could. A few stragglers were taken prisoners by
the Duke of Argyll, who arrived at Aberdeen two days
after General Gordon, but there was no man of note
among them.

It was now the turn of the government to deal with
the unfortunate prisoners who had fallen into their
hands. There were not many prisoners taken in Scot-
land, but of those taken at Preston the majority were
Scotsmen, as already stated. Of these, six men of
high rank, who held commissions in the king's army,
were sentenced to be shot by martial law. The Earl of

38 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

Derwentwater and Viscount Kenmure were executed.
The Earl of Nithsdale was sentenced to death, but
succeeded in escaping from prison by the devotion of
his wife the day before his execution was to take place-
Lord Wintoun was sentenced to death and he also made
his escape from prison. So also did Thomas Forster
and Brigadier Mackintosh. The stern and martial
appearance of the doughty brigadier made a deep im-
pression even on the thoughtless crowd as he was led
along the streets of London to prison. His heroism
was celebrated in popular ballads and the news of his
escape from prison was hailed with delight by the people
of London. Some nobles suffered a period of imprison-
ment, until they were set free by the passing of an Act
of Indemnity. Of the inferior prisoners, most of whom
were Highlanders, about twenty-five were executed,
some in Manchester and Preston and some in London,
and about a thousand were transported as slaves to
the American plantations. Of the prisoners taken in
Scotland, eighty-nine were removed to Carlisle to be
tried there, probably because it was feared there might
be some difficulty in obtaining conviction against them
in Scotland. This gave rise in Scotland to a strong
feeling against the government, even among the whigs,
but the prisoners were leniently dealt with, many were
set at liberty, and though several were condemned, not
one was brought to execution, though some appear to
have been transported to the American plantations.

The Earl of Mar managed the chevalier's state affairs
abroad until 1721, when he lost his master's confidence.
Mar began life as a whig, but his political career was so
inconsistent that he became known by the nickname of
" Bobbing John." He was a man of cultured manner

THE REBELLION OF 1715 39

and refined tastes, and could move as easily among
the polished circles of Queen Anne's court as among his
Highland clansmen. Of military affairs he was quite
ignorant, and in rashly undertaking the rising of 1715,
because his advances to the new king were rejected,
and without even consulting some of the most important
members of the Jacobite party, he ruined their cause at
the very moment when its chances of success were
greatest. He died in exile at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1732.

When the Duke of Argyll, who had done the govern-
ment such important service, returned to London he
was received with great distinction by the king, but so
boldly did he plead for a mitigation of the punishment
of the Jacobite prisoners that he soon lost favour at
court and was deprived for a time of all his high offices.

It was not long before the country was once more
startled by the intelligence that Charles XII. of Sweden
was forming a confederacy to dethrone George I., who
had excited his indignation, and to replace the House
of Stuart on the throne. This confederacy was joined
by Cardinal Alberoni, Prime Minister of Spain, with
which country Great Britain was then at war, but its
plans were upset by the death of Charles XII. in 1718.
The project was then taken up by Alberoni himself, and
in March 1719 he fitted out a powerful expedition under
command of the Duke of Ormonde to make a descent
on the English coast and to support the Jacobite cause
in the Highlands of Scotland. Scarcely had the ex-
pedition set sail when it was overtaken by a terrible
storm in the Bay of Biscay and so completely ruined
that only two vessels were able to reach Scotland.
These vessels had on board the Earl of Seaforth, the
Earl Marischal, the Marquis of Tullibardine, and about

40 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

three hundred Spaniards with arms for two thousand
men. Having called at Seaforth's Island of Lewis and
raised some men, they eventually landed in Kintail, on
the shores of Lochalsh, in the south-west of Ross-shire,
on April 5. Here they lay quiet for some time in hopes
that Ormonde might still be able to come to their aid,
and in the meantime were joined by a number of High-
landers, including the traitor Rob Roy Macgregor and
a party of his followers. Their plan was to march
across the country to Inverness and there to form a
centre for the reassembling of the Jacobite clans, but
their continued inactivity gave the government ample
time to take effective measures against them. Early
in May three ships of war sailed up Lochalsh and de-
stroyed Ellandonan Castle, the stronghold of the Earls
of Seaforth, and shortly afterwards a small force of
about 1200 men marched against them from Inverness
under the command of General Wightman. The
Jacobite force consisted of about 1100 men, including
about 200 Spaniards, and was under the command of the
Earl of Seaforth. The two forces met at Glenshiel on
June 10, where a battle was fought, which ended in the
dispersal of the Highlanders and the surrender of the
Spaniards as prisoners of war, although the advantage
of the fight lay with Seaforth. The king's troops lost
twenty-one killed and one hundred and twenty-one
wounded. The loss of the Highlanders is not known,
but it was not heavy. Seaforth himself was badly
wounded, but he succeeded, as did also Tullibardine,
Marischal, and the other chief officers, in escaping to
the continent.

CHAPTER IV

I7I5-I745

At the time of the Rebellion of 1715 there was a great
difference in many ways between the Highlands and the
Lowlands of Scotland. As a result of the commercial
facilities which were brought by the union the Lowlands
were rapidly advancing in wealth and prosperity, and
though Jacobite feelings prevailed to some extent
among many of the old landed aristocracy and those
who were more or less dependent on them, yet the
Presbyterian Church and the commercial classes were
firm supporters of the Hanoverian government as being
the best safeguard of that peace and security under
which their country was beginning to reap so many
benefits. But in the Highlands the state of feeling was
of quite a different nature. There Episcopalianism
was still the popular creed and Gaelic the spoken
language, while in the trade and growing prosperity of
the south the people had neither share nor interest.
Separated thus from the Lowlands and trained in the
use of arms they became a source of danger and con-
stant anxiety to their southern neighbours. Their
chiefs were accustomed to have considerable intercourse
with France, where they acquired learning and culture,
as well as an experience in continental warfare, which
might at any moment be turned to account against the
authority established at home and to which many of

41

42 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

them acknowledged but scant allegiance. It was only
natural, then, that after the Rising of 1715 government
should seriously endeavour to deal with the various
causes which rendered the Highlands a source of danger
to the public peace.

In 1716 commissioners were appointed by Parlia-
ment to deal with the estates forfeited by those who
had taken part in the Rebellion, and to raise money out
of them for public use. It was, of course, with the
Highlands that the commission had chiefly to deal, and
its task proved to be far from easy. On some estates,
notably those of the Earl of Seaforth, the rent-collectors
sent by the commission were met by armed resistance,
while the rents were voluntarily transmitted abroad to
the exiled family. The feeling of all parties in Scotland
was against the forfeiture of their countrymen's estates,
so that it was very difficult to find purchasers for any
estates put up for sale, and when the commissioners
concluded their labours in 1725, the balance of profit
that had gone into the public purse was only £1107.

It was in 1724 that Field-Marshal Wade, a distin-
guished and experienced officer, was commissioned to
report on the condition of the Highlands and the
remedies best suited to promote the peace and welfare
of that part of the country. Wade did much to carry
out the object for which he was sent. All his proceed-
ings were marked by a humanity and a good sense
which made him a popular man and which entitles him
to rank as a true benefactor to the people of the High-
lands. His greatest and most important work was the
opening up of the country by means of roads. Between
1726 and 1737 he constructed 260 miles of excellent
roadway, which opened up communications by the Great

I7I5-I745 43

Highland Road from Stirling by Dunkeld and Blair
Atholl to Inverness, and from Inverness through the
valleys now traversed by the Caledonian Canal to Fort
William. A connection was made between the Great
Highland and the Fort William Roads over the Pass of
Corryarfack near Fort Augustus. Another road was
made from Stirling through Glenalmond along Loch
Tay to Crieff, and joining the Great Highland Road at
Dalnacardoch. An armed vessel was stationed on
Loch Ness and barracks were erected in various places
for the accommodation of regular soldiers.

An Act had been passed for disarming the clans, but
it was easily evaded. Old and useless weapons were
surrendered, and compensation paid for them by the
government, while new and better ones were being
smuggled into the country and kept in concealment
ready for use when occasion should arise. But that
was not all. Worthless weapons were imported from
Holland to be surrendered as a claim to the government
compensation. When Wade arrived in the Highlands
he took more energetic measures to complete the dis-
arming of the clans, but even he was deceived, as
subsequent events proved. In 1725 six independent
companies of eighty men each were established in order
to secure the peace of the Highlands and to protect
the people from the armed freebooters that still roamed
about the country. These companies consisted mainly
of Highland gentlemen, who were dressed and armed
according to their own custom, and because of then-
dark appearance as compared with the scarlet uniforms
of the regular troops they became known as " The
Black Watch." In May 1740 these companies were

44 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

enrolled at Aberfeldy into the famous regiment that
still bears their name.

Whether it was intended to send this regiment on
foreign service or not, it is quite certain that no such
intention was made known to the men who joined it,
and they disliked foreign service, partly because they
considered their dress unsuitable, but more especially
because they objected to be placed on a level of equality
with the social refuse from which so many of the
common soldiers were recruited. For the first three
years their services were confined to Scotland, but in
1743 they were ordered to England, and though their
suspicions were aroused, yet they consented to go
because they were informed the reason for sending
them was that the king desired to review them. They
were reviewed on Finchley Common, but the king was
not present, and so greatly annoyed were they by this
breach of faith and by the unpleasant attentions of the
London mob, who ridiculed their unusual dress and
appearance, that they resolved on a secret escape back
to Scotland. Accordingly they set out under cover of
the darkness of night, without officers or guides, and got
as far as Oundle in Northamptonshire before they were
overtaken. Here they were persuaded to surrender.
Three of them were executed and several were trans-
ported to the West Indies. The rest were sent to
Flanders, where they began the distinguished career
that has made the " Black Watch " one of the proudest
and most honoured names in the annals of British arms.
Such was the origin of the first of the Highland regiments.

While General Wade was entering on his great work
in the Highlands a serious fiscal dispute broke out in
the Lowlands. Scotland was still a poor country, and

I7I5-I745 45

her revenue was barely sufficient to maintain her own
civil and military administration, much less to con-
tribute to any imperial requirements. The malt tax
imposed in 1713 was never properly paid or even seri-
ously enforced and amounted to less than the expense
of collecting it. Another generation had to pass before
the increasing prosperity of Scotland began to make
her partnership a source of imperial profit for the
United Kingdom. Meanwhile Walpole proposed to
raise a sum of £20,000 in Scotland by imposing a tax on
ale instead of malt and by withdrawing from Scotland,
while still continuing it in England, a bounty which
was paid at that time on the export of grain. Against
this the nation raised a vehement protest. The
Jacobites maintained it was a breach of the Treaty of
Union, and that the object of the tax was to provide
funds for a weekly payment of £10 each, which was
then made during the session of Parliament to the
Scottish members, whom they described as a parcel of
corrupt locusts on whose account the country must be
oppressed. Much to the disappointment of the
Jacobites the proposal was dropped, and an Act was
passed in 1724 to enforce payment of the malt tax,
which had already been imposed in accordance with
the terms of the union. To this alternative the Scottish
members agreed ; in fact, it is not easy to see on what
grounds they could honestly oppose it, but that did
not make it any the more popular in Scotland. It
increased the price of ale, which was then a staple article
of domestic consumption, and those who disliked the
union pointed to it as another instance of English
oppression.

The opposition to this measure showed itself more

46 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

especially in the large towns. In Edinburgh the
br.wers resolved to cease brewing, but the Lord Advo-
cate, Duncan Forbes, persuaded the Court of Session
to pronounce their action illegal and threatened to
proceed against them for conspiracy. The laws against
combination, which were to be so often put into force
against workmen, were on this occasion invoked against
the masters, who, after making a slight show of resistance,
soon resumed their work.

It was in Glasgow, however, which had been so
eminently loyal to the union and to the Hanoverian
succession, that the feeling of discontent broke out in
its most violent form, and when the Act came into force
on June 23, 1725, the attitude of the mob towards their
member of Parliament, Daniel Campbell of Shawfield,
whom they accused not only of supporting the obnoxious
Act but of having exposed a plan for evading the
duties on their tobacco trade, which was then a rising
industry in Glasgow, became so threatening that he
appealed for military protection to General Wade, who
was then in Edinburgh on his way to the Highlands.
But before Wade's men could arrive, the mob attacked
Campbell's house and laid it in ruins. Next day the
soldiers, who had meantime arrived in Glasgow, were
so persistently annoyed and attacked with stones by
the mob that the officer in command, Captain Bushell,
was compelled to give them the order to fire, with the
result, it was said, that eight of the crowd were killed
and several wounded. The mob then broke into the
town armoury, and having provided themselves with
weapons, became so furious that it was feared the
soldiers might be massacred. At the entreaty of the
provost, who had acted all along either feebly or

17*5-1745 47

treacherously, Captain Bushell began a retreat to
Dumbarton, followed for a considerable part of the
way by an insulting and threatening mob. Shortly
afterwards the Lord Advocate arrived, accompanied
by a force under General Wade himself, and quiet-
ness was soon restored. Proceedings were instituted
against the magistrates for neglecting their duty,
but the charges against them were abandoned. A
few of the rioters, however, were punished. Captain
Bushell was brought to trial for ordering his soldiers to
fire without the authority of a magistrate and a verdict
found against him, but he received a royal pardon.
The malt tax was not only continued, but was increased
from time to time. In raising the price of ale the malt
tax had the effect of increasing the consumption of
whisky, which before this was little used.

These disturbances were but the beginning of a series
of excise difficulties which continued for quite a century,
and were not confined to Scotland, for they were felt,
though not to quite so large an extent, in England also.
At this time and for many years to come smuggling
was the great public vice of Scotland and prevailed to
such a large extent as almost to affect the national
character. The smuggler had the support of peasant
and laird alike, and frequently carried on his dishonest
trade with the connivance of the justices of the peace,
who had been appointed for the express purpose of
enforcing the revenue laws of the country. The mer-
chants of the trading towns, whose legitimate business
suffered so much by it, protested against the injustice
done to them, and the General Assembly repeatedly
passed Acts condemning it, but the practice went on
to the utter demoralisation of all those who were engaged
in it.

48 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

In the year 1736 the smuggling trade led to a tragedy
which has not only become the subject of a great Scot-
tish romance, but may even be regarded as one of the
landmarks of Scottish history in the eighteenth century.
A notorious Fifeshire smuggler named Wilson, who had
sustained heavy losses through frequent seizures of his
contraband goods, retaliated by breaking into the
Custom House at Pittenweem and stealing some govern-
ment money which was lying there at the time. Among
his accomplices in this robbery was a youth of the name
Robertson. Both Wilson and Robertson were caught,
tried, and condemned to death. While awaiting their
execution in the Tolbooth, a prison of Edinburgh,
commonly known as the " Heart of Midlothian," they
succeeded one night in cutting through the bars of their
window with instruments of which they had surrepti-
tiously obtained possession. Wilson then proceeded to
make his escape, leaving Robertson to follow him, but
being a bulky man he stuck in the opening and was
discovered before he could extricate himself. Having
thus prevented Robertson's escape as well as his own,
he formed a daring resolve to make amends to his com-
panion. On the Sunday before the day fixed for their
execution, they were taken, according to the custom
of the time, unfettered, but in the custody of four
soldiers of the city guard, to attend public worship in
the Tolbooth Church. As soon as the soldiers were
seated Wilson suddenly sprang upon them, laying hold
of one with each hand and seizing the collar of the third
with his teeth, while his companion Robertson, having
only the fourth to deal with, easily escaped to the door
and disappeared.

Wilson was left behind for execution, but the common

I7I5-I745 49

people were so impressed by the boldness and the
generosity which he had shown on behalf of his fellow-
prisoner that it was feared an attempt might be made
to rescue him by force. In order, therefore, to avoid
all risks of a disturbance on the day of the execution,
the magistrates obtained, in addition to the city guard,
the help of a strong detachment of soldiers from the
castle, and the sentence was duly carried out. The
commander of the guard was Captain John Porteous,
an active and energetic officer, but very unpopular with
the rabble. After the execution the crowd became so
violent that the guard had to fire upon them, and several
were killed and wounded. Whether or not Porteous
gave the order to fire has never been made clear, but, in
any case, he was brought to trial and condemned to
death on the charge of having fired on the crowd with-
out the authority of the civil magistrate. The case for
Porteous was taken up, however, by men of influence,
and a reprieve was obtained from Queen Caroline, who
was then acting as regent during the temporary absence
of George II. in Hanover, but the people of Edinburgh
were resolved that Porteous should not escape their
vengeance.

On the night of September 7, while Porteous was
celebrating the arrival of the reprieve along with some
friends who had visited him in the prison, the Edin-
burgh mob suddenly rose as if by some prearranged
plan, overpowered the city guard, seized the arms in the
guard house, and proceeded to the Tolbooth. The
magistrates, who happened on that night to be as-
sembled in conviviality, made a feeble attempt to dis-
perse the crowd, but were soon glad to retreat. The
officers in command of the soldiers who were stationed

D

50 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

in the castle and in the Canongate refused to act on
their own responsibility, and no one could be found to
convey to them the written authority of the magistrates.
Meantime, by burning the door of the prison, the mob
effected an entrance and set all the prisoners free,
except Porteous, whom they found hiding in the
chimney of his cell. He was then dragged to the Grass-
market and there hanged, under circumstances of great
barbarity, from a dyer's pole. As soon as he was dead
the crowd dispersed as quietly and quickly as they had
gathered together and every effort to discover the
leaders of the outrage proved in vain.

At court the news of these proceedings was received
with the very greatest indignation. The queen, who had
granted the reprieve, felt the death of Porteous as a
personal insult, and the government offered a reward of
£200 for the discovery of any person concerned in the
riot. But there were further developments, and in the
end there arose, in connection with the affair, a serious
dispute in Parliament, where a Bill was introduced to
punish the city of Edinburgh. By this Bill the provost
and bailies, whose neglect of duty was held to be one
of the causes of the riot, were to be disqualified for any
public office, the town guard was to be abolished, and
the Netherbow Port was to be pulled down. The queen
angrily urged the whig government to proceed with the
Bill. The Duke of Argyll stoutly opposed it. The
Scottish members of all political parties condemned it,
and they were supported by the tories, who gladly
welcomed the opportunity of coming forward, as
supporters of the rights and freedom of municipal cor-
porations, against the whigs. After a controversy that
lasted for five months the Bill was passed in the end,

1715-1745 5i

but in a comparatively harmless form. The provost
was declared incapable of holding any public office and
the city was fined £2000 for the benefit of Captain
Porteous' widow.

As far as the city of Edinburgh was concerned the
affair was now ended, but it led to further controversy
elsewhere. An order was issued by the government
imposing upon the ministers of the Established Church,
under penalty of deprivation, the duty of reading from
the pulpit on the first Sunday of every month for a
year a proclamation for the discovery of the murderers
of Captain Porteous. Many of the clergy resented this
imposition as an Erastian x heresy and an unwarrant-
able interference with the spiritual independence of the
Church. Thus there arose a keen controversy between
the ministers who read the proclamation and those who
refused to do so, but the number of the latter was so
large as to make punishment impossible, and the
matter had to be dropped. Altogether, then, the
political developments arising out of the Porteous Riots
were not of such a nature as to increase the respect of
Scotland for the Imperial Parliament.

It has already been mentioned that the Duke of
Argyll was disgraced in 1716, but the favour of the
court soon returned to him, and in 1719 he was again
restored to office and received a British dukedom.
Two years afterwards the great whig statesman, Sir
Robert Walpole, who had already acquired fame as a

1 Erastianism — so called from Thomas Erastus (1 524-1 583), a
Swiss theologian — is the principle that the Church ought to be
entirely under the control of the state. The opposite principle,
which is known as Voluntaryism or spiritual independence, holds
that the Church ought to be entirely free from all state control
and maintained by voluntary offerings.

52 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

financier, became Prime Minister, and continued in
power until 1742. His policy was to uphold the Hano-
verian succession and to keep at peace with continental
. nations as the surest means of defeating the plans of
the Jacobites and making the position of the House of
Hanover secure on the British throne. He was a strong
leader and a man of practical good sense and sound
policy, but his power was based upon corruption and
bribery. His chief supporters in Scotland were the
Duke of Argyll, his brother Lord Islay, and latterly
Duncan Forbes of Culloden. For many years these
three men practically managed the affairs of Scotland,
though in the end Argyll himself withdrew his support
to some extent because of the annoyance he felt at the
insignificant position assigned to Scottish affairs in
Walpole's administration. Walpole resigned in 1742
and was created Earl of Orford on his retirement.

Walpole's ministry was succeeded almost immedi-
ately by the " Broad bottom " ministry under Henry
Pelham, who continued in power until his death in
1754, when he was succeeded by his brother, the Duke
of Newcastle. The ministry was so called because the
opponents of Walpole professed to desire a ministry
broad enough to satisfy all political parties, but it
remained, however, a ministry of whigs. The Duke of
Argyll refused to take office in it, and opposed all its
measures until his death on September 3, 1743. The
memory of his great services both in the senate and in
the field, together with his influence in Scotland, made
the great whig Highland chief a power to the last. In
his opposition to the new ministry he showed increasing
sympathy with the Jacobites, but whether he would
have joined in the rebellion which followed so soon

1715-1745

53

after his death may well be doubted. With the in-
fluence and the great military talent of such a man, the
issue of that rebellion might have been different. It
was during the weak and vacillating administration of
Henry Pelham that the great rebellion of 1745 occurred.

THE HOUSES OF STUART AND HANOVER

JAMES VI. and I.

Charles I.

Charles II. James VII. and II. Mary

James, Anne Mary, m. William III.

The Chevalier

Charles Edward Henry

Elizabeth, m. Frederick,
Elector
Palatine
Sophia, m. Elector of
Hanover

George I.

George II.

Frederick William, Duke of

Cumberland
George III.

George IV. William IV. Edward, Duke of

I Kent

Victoria

Edward VII.

CHAPTER V

THE REBELLION OF 1 745

A dispute about the succession to the throne of Austria
led to the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748).
In this war nearly all Europe was involved and England
and France were on opposite sides. The outbreak of
war was the opportunity of the Jacobites, as Walpole
had always maintained, and in 1740, the same year in
which the war began, seven leading Scottish Jacobites,
who possessed great influence in the Highlands, pledged
themselves to rise in arms as soon as adequate help for
a rising was supplied from abroad. These were : Lord
Lovat, Lord Traquair and his brother, John Stewart,
the Duke of Perth, Lord John Drummond, Sir James
Campbell of Auchinbreck, and Donald Cameron of
Locheil. In June 1743 the British troops and their
Hanoverian allies, commanded by George II. in person,
won the battle of Dettingen in Bavaria against the
French, who felt so annoyed at their defeat that they
began to turn their attention to the exiled Stuarts as a
means of avenging themselves on King George, and
Prince Charles Edward, son of the old chevalier, was
invited to Paris from Rome, where he was living at
the time.

Prince Charles was born at Rome on December 31,
1720. He was in many ways a young man well suited
for the adventurous enterprise he was about to under-
take. He was tall, handsome, vigorous, and athletic,

54

THE REBELLION OF 1745 55

and had trained himself to endure fatigue and toil.
His manner was courteous and pleasant, and he was
active and brave, frank and generous. He spoke
English like an Irishman, but he was very badly
educated, and had been brought up in the arbitrary
principles of government which had proved the ruin of
his family. He was, of course, a Roman Catholic.

Early in 1744 the French fitted out an expedition of
15 ,000 trained and war-tried soldiers to cross to the English
coast, where Marshal Saxe, perhaps the greatest soldier of
the age, was to take command of them. In February a
French fleet sailed up the Channel to clear the way for
the transports carrying the soldiers, but found as they
approached the English coast a British fleet waiting to
engage them. At the same time there arose, on March
6 and 7, a heavy storm, which dispersed the French
fleet and drove it back considerably damaged to the
French coast. The plan of invasion was forthwith
abandoned and Marshal Saxe was sent to command
the French troops in Flanders, where, at the Battle of
Fontenoy in May 1745, he inflicted a defeat on the
British army and its allies under the command of the
Duke of Cumberland. The defeat of the British troops
at Fontenoy inspired Prince Charles with new hope, and
he resolved to set out for Scotland on his own responsi-
bility and even against the advice of the leading
Scottish Jacobites, who felt that it was useless to
attempt a rising without help from abroad.

On July 2, 1745, Prince Charles set sail from Nantes,
on the Loire, in a small ship called the Doutelle, and
after a very adventurous voyage arrived at the small
island called Eriskay, near South Uist, on July 23.
Here the prince received a discouraging account of his

56 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

prospects. He determined, however, to proceed to the
mainland, and on July 25 landed at Moidart in the
south-west of Inverness-shire. He was accompanied
by seven followers, afterwards known as the seven men
of Moidart. They were the Marquis of Tullibardine,
Sir Thomas Sheridan, Sir John Macdonald, a Scottish
officer who had served in Spain, Colonel Francis Strick-
land, an English gentleman, Rev. George Kelly, who
had been implicated in an English Jacobite plot, iEneas
Macdonald, brother of the Chief of Moidart and now a
Paris banker, and a man of the name of Buchanan, who
had accompanied the prince from Rome to Paris. One
of the attendants who immediately afterwards joined
the prince was a young man named Neil Macdonald
(Neil MacEachain), a native of South Uist, who had
studied in France for the Roman Catholic priesthood
and proved a useful interpreter, as he could talk English,
Gaelic, French, and Latin. He was the father of the
great French soldier, Marshal Macdonald, Duke of
Taranto. Among the first to wait upon the Prince was
Donald Cameron of Locheil, who tried to persuade him
to return to France and wait for a more favourable
opportunity. In the end, however, Locheil, who was
overcome by the persuasiveness of the prince, promised
to join. Locheil was a man of high character and great
influence, and it was generally believed that if he had
not promised his support the other chiefs would not
have joined under such unpromising circumstances.
Locheil's example was quickly followed and several
other chiefs soon declared for the prince.

The civil war actually began before the prince raised
his standard. On August 16 a party of soldiers sent by
the governor of Fort Augustus to reinforce the garrison

THE REBELLION OF 1745 57

at Fort William were attacked at Spean Bridge by some
Macdonalds and Camerons and compelled to surrender.
Five or six of them were killed. Their leader, Captain
Scott, was wounded, and as the governor of Fort
Augustus refused to trust a surgeon among the High-
landers to dress his wounds, Locheil, with his usual
generosity, allowed him to return to the fort on parole
in order to get his wounds dressed. The prisoners were
taken to Locheil's house, where they were treated with
kindness and the wounded received attention.

The standard of the prince was unfurled at Glen-
finnan, near Fort William, on August 19, by the Mar-
quis of Tullibardine, who had been forced to live in
exile for his share in the Rebellion of 1715, and was now
old and infirm. A manifesto from the prince's father
was then read and the prince himself made a stirring
speech : — " He had come for the happiness of his
people, chose Scotland as his starting-point because he
knew he should find brave gentlemen zealous for their
own honour and the rights of their sovereign, and as
willing to live and die with him as he was willing at their
head to shed the last drop of his blood." At Glen-
finnan he was joined by 1600 Highlanders, and in a few
days was able to commence his advance to the south
with more than 2000 men.

The prince landed at Moidart some days before the
government became aware that he had left France, and
even after receiving intelligence of his arrival their
action was slow and undecided, but with feeble
malignity they brought to trial the officers of a man-of-
war — the Lion — for failing in a hopeless attempt to
intercept the Doutelle, and one of the officers was shot.
Almost all the available British troops were engaged in

58 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

the war on the continent, and the few stationed in Scot-
land were under the command of Sir John Cope. In all
he had less than 3000 men, and with these he set out
from Edinburgh on the day that the standard of the
prince was raised in Glenfinnan. On the following day
he continued his march from Stirling accompanied by
1500 infantry, leaving his cavalry behind him, as they
would be useless among the hills.

As the prince marched southwards the number of his
followers increased, and on August 27 Cope and he were
almost face to face in the steep and rugged Pass of
Corryarrack, which was traversed by one of Wade's
roads, in the neighbourhood of Fort Augustus. The
position occupied by the Highlanders was so strong
that Cope was afraid to attack them, and he therefore
resolved to march to Inverness in order to secure the
support of the loyal clans in the prince's rear. The
way to the south now lay open to the Highlanders, and
on September 4 they reached Perth, where they were
joined by the Duke of Perth and Lord George Murray,
brother of the Marquis of Tullibardine and a soldier of
talent and experience. As the prince advanced towards
Stirling, the cavalry left there by Cope retreated at his
approach, so that the Highlanders were able to cross the
Forth eight miles further up, at the Ford of Frew, with-
out any opposition, on September 13.

On the 15 th the Edinburgh volunteers were called
together by the ringing of the fire bell in order to join
the dragoons from Stirling in the defence of the city.
They mustered in large numbers, but on receiving
orders to march towards the West Port on the way to
Corstorphine, they quickly melted away. Next day
the dragoons were drawn up at Colt Bridge on the west

THE REBELLION OF 1745 59

side of Edinburgh to await the approach of the High-
landers, but no sooner did the Highland van come in
sight than the dragoons broke into wild flight and
galloping past the north side of the city, where the New
Town now stands, halted for a few moments at Leith,
and then resumed their flight in the darkness of night as
far as Dunbar and other towns on the east coast. This
flight, which was called " The Canter of Colt Brigg,"
left Edinburgh at the mercy of the prince and his
Highlanders.

The magistrates now sent a deputation to the prince,
begging him to suspend hostilities until they could decide
what to do. Hardly had the deputation left the city
when news was received that Cope, who had hurried
back from Inverness to Aberdeen, where he embarked
his troops, had now arrived and was about to land at
Dunbar in order to march to the defence of Edinburgh.
A messenger was immediately sent out to recall the
deputation, but he was unable to overtake them. The
deputation met the prince at Gray's Mill, about two
miles from the city, and returned about ten o'clock at
night with a peremptory demand from the prince for
the surrender of the city by two o'clock in the morning.
A second deputation was sent out in a coach, but the
prince refused to see them.

Meantime the prince had sent Cameron of Locheil,
with 800 of his clansmen, to be ready to blow up one of
the gates if the city did not surrender by the appointed
hour. While Locheil and his men were lying in ambush
outside the Netherbow Port, the gate was opened to
allow the coachman who had been employed by the
second deputation to pass out to his stable in the Canon-
gate, and before it could be closed again Locheil's men

60 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

rushed from their ambush and took possession of it.
When the inhabitants awoke in the morning of Septem-
ber 17 they found their city in possession of the High-
landers. In spite of the many temptations which the
capture of the city placed in their way the Highlanders
behaved with the utmost propriety. Their discipline
was admirable and there was neither plundering nor
drunkenness. About noon on the same day the prince
took possession of Holyrood Palace, accompanied by
many Scotsmen of importance and rank, and loudly
applauded by a large concourse of people. He was
dressed in red velvet breeches and boots, a scarlet
tartan jacket and perhaps a plaid, and a green velvet
bonnet with a white cockade. His father was then
proclaimed at the city cross, amidst wild enthusiasm,
as King James VIII., and at night the prince gave a
splendid ball at Holyrood Palace.

But it was not a time for festivities, as Cope's army
had landed at Dunbar and was preparing to march on
Edinburgh. On the morning of September 19 the
prince marched out to Duddingston, at the foot of
Arthur's Seat, where most of his troops were encamped.
Next day he advanced at the head of nearly 3000 men
and did not stop until he reached Prestonpans and came
in sight of Cope, who thereupon formed his army in
battle array with a marsh between himself and the
Highlanders. Cope had been joined by the dragoons
already referred to, so that he had in all about the same
number of men as the prince had. Both armies passed
the night, which was very cold, lying on the ground.
But during the night a gentleman of the neighbourhood,
who had joined the prince and knew of a way through
the marsh, led the Highlanders across in profound

THE REBELLION OF 1745 61

silence and under cover of a mist. As soon as the mist
was dispelled by the morning sun, the Highlanders,
having said a short prayer, charged their opponents
with such impetuous fury that in a few minutes the
whole of Cope's troops were in flight. He tried to rally
them, but in vain, and was soon obliged to join in their
flight. About 400 of his men were slain, among them
being Colonel Gardiner, a brave soldier and a saintly
man whose home stood close to the field of battle.
Over 2000 of Cope's men were made prisoners. The
losses of the prince's army were from thirty to forty
killed and over seventy wounded. A large quantity of
booty, including Cope's military chest with £2000, fell
into the hands of the victors. Such was the battle of
Prestonpans, which was fought on September 21, 1745.
Charles was anxious to follow up his victory by march-
ing at once to England, where he hoped to be joined
by many followers, and by rapid marches to occupy
London before it could be put in a state of defence. But
many of his soldiers had gone home with their booty,
and his chief officers were opposed to a march into
England until the arrival of the reinforcements which
had been promised from France. Others were opposed
to a march into England at all, and urged that the
prince should remain in Scotland and reign there like
his ancestors. Meantime the government was gradually
getting troops together, and the French reinforcements,
which the prince so eagerly expected, did not arrive.
But, on the other hand, the victory at Prestonpans
brought him many recruits from the Highlands and
elsewhere, and he was soon at the head of an army of
6000 men. During the time that he passed in Edin-
burgh he was busy consolidating his power, visiting

62 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

his camp at Duddingston, drilling and organising his
troops, levying money and supplies, and winning
favourable opinions on all hands by his magnanimity
and moderation.

At length Charles overcame the reluctance of his
officers and on October 31 he marched out of Edinburgh
at the head of his guards to Dalkeith, where he was
joined by the rest of his troops from Duddingston and
other quarters. At Dalkeith the army was divided
into two parts. One part, commanded by the Duke of
Perth, proceeded along the western road to Carlisle.
The other division, commanded by the prince in person,
marched to Kelso, where they crossed the Tweed, then
marched towards the west. Both divisions joined
together on November 9 near Carlisle, forming an army
of about 5000 men. The march along the east road to
Kelso was a feint to keep Marshal Wade, who was at
the head of an army in Northumberland, from going
to the relief of Carlisle, which was the real objective of
the prince's army. The garrison at Carlisle made some
show of resistance, but soon surrendered, and the prince
entered the city in triumph on November 17. Many of
the Highlanders were unwilling to march into England,
and it was said that about a thousand of them deserted
between Edinburgh and Carlisle. At Carlisle a dispute
arose about the chief command, which in the end was
given to Lord George Murray, undoubtedly the most
competent officer in the prince's army.

In England there were three armies waiting to oppose
the advance of the prince. Marshal Wade, as already
stated, was in command of an army in Northumberland.
The Duke of Cumberland, who had been recalled from
his command on the continent, was at the head of

THE REBELLION OF 1745 63

another army at Lichfield, while a third army was
gathering on Finchley Common, near London, which
George II. himself was to command in person. From
Carlisle the prince marched on to Preston, which the
Highlanders approached with a superstitious fear, as
the scene of two former defeats of the Stuart cause in
1648 and in 1 715. At Preston the prince received the
first tokens of sympathy in England, and was joined by
a few recruits. As the march through Lancashire con-
tinued there were increasing signs of goodwill, until at
Manchester a small regiment was raised for the prince's
service. From Manchester he marched to Derby,
which was reached on December 4. About this time the
prince's army is described as marching well, with their
pipes playing. The private soldiers, though shabby in
appearance, were lusty and active. Their conduct was
good and often devout, and at Derby many of the
officers and men, most of whom were probably Episco-
palians, took the sacrament.

The prince's army was now within 127 miles of
London, but the Duke of Cumberland, with more than
10,000 troops, was within a day's march, and Marshal
Wade was moving south with another army quite as
large as the prince's. Among the commercial classes
in London the approach of the Highlanders created
quite a panic, and the day on which the news of their
arrival at Derby reached London was long remembered
there as Black Friday, but the common people generally
seemed to regard the struggle for the crown with in-
difference. The Prime Minister, the Duke of Newcastle,
is said to have shut himself up for a whole day to con-
sider whether or not he should declare for the prince,
and King George himself felt so doubtful about the

64 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

issue of events that he is said to have ordered a ship to be
in readiness to take him away at a moment's notice.
Had the prince continued the march to London as he
wished to do, it would have been impossible either for
Cumberland or Wade to overtake him, and in all prob-
ability he would win a victory over the army on Finchley
Common and take possession of London, but whether
he would be able to retain possession in the face of the
forces that would soon muster against him is quite
another thing. Charles and the men were eager to con-
tinue the march to London, but his principal officers,
disappointed that so few had joined them in England,
and appreciating the dangers of the situation, insisted
upon retreat. The retreat began accordingly in the
early morning of December 6, and all chances of ulti-
mate success were now ended. The men marched out
from Derby in high spirits, thinking that they were
going to fight the Duke of Cumberland, but soon dis-
covered their mistake. Their disappointment was very
keen, and the excellent discipline which had so far been
maintained began to suffer. The prince, too, was deeply
disappointed, and instead of marching gaily on foot in
the van talking to the men and cheering them as he used
to do, he now loitered listlessly in the rear and became
gloomy and dejected.

The retreat was rapidly continued without any note-
worthy incident until December 18, when they were
attacked in the rear by the Duke of Cumberland, whose
dragoons had overtaken them at the village of Clifton
near Penrith. The attack was repulsed so sharply and
so effectively by Lord George Murray, who commanded
the rear of the Highlanders, that the duke retreated
with the loss of a considerable number of men, and did

THE REBELLION OF 1745 65

not venture to put himself within reach of the Highland
rear again. This was the last battle fought on English
soil. Next day the prince arrived at Carlisle, where
he left the Manchester regiment as a garrison, and
where it fell a few days afterwards into the hands of the
Duke of Cumberland. On December 20 the prince and
his army crossed the river Esk into Scotland and
marched to Glasgow, where they arrived on the 26th.

During the prince's absence in England things had
materially changed in Scotland. The supporters of
King George had recovered from the panic and confusion
into which they were at first thrown. Edinburgh was
once more in the hands of the constitutional authorities
and garrisoned by a part of Marshal Wade's army,
which had been sent there for that purpose. Stirling
and Inverness were also held by King George's troops.
The command at Inverness was held by Lord Loudoun,
who sent a small body of loyal Highlanders to Aberdeen-
shire to prevent a Jacobite rising in that county, but
they were met at Inverurie on December 23 and there
defeated by Lord Lewis Gordon, who then led his own
men to Perth, where reinforcements for the service of
the prince were being collected. But the rising had
made very little progress in the Highlands during the
absence of the prince. This was mainly owing to the
influence and watchfulness of Duncan Forbes of Cul-
loden, Lord President of the Court of Session, an able
and sagacious statesman, who did more than any other
man to uphold the cause of King George in Scotland.
Altogether, then, the prince's prospects even in Scotland
were no longer very promising.

At Glasgow the prince and his army rested for a week,
and as the city was whig and Hanoverian, contributions

E

66 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

of money, food, and clothing were freely levied upon the
inhabitants. On January 3, 1746, with his army re-
freshed and newly clad and shod, he marched out to
Stirling and took up his quarters at Bannockburn, where
he was soon joined by Lord Strathallan and Lord John
DrummOnd with reinforcements from Perth and some
battering guns and engines from France. These rein-
forcements amounted to about 4000 men, including some
Mackenzies, the Mackintoshes, the Farquharsons, and
also the Frasers, sent by their chief, Lord Lovat, under
his son, while he himself remained at home professing
his loyalty to King George. The prince had now an
army of about 9000 men, with which he proceeded on
January 10 to besiege Stirling Castle.

On January 3, the same day that the prince marched
out of Glasgow, the Duke of Cumberland was hastily
recalled from his pursuit of the Highlanders to defend
the south coast of England against a threatened landing
of the French. The duke's place was taken by General
Henry Hawley, a coarse, brutal, and boastful man, who
had been appointed in succession to Cope to the chief
command in Scotland. He had fought under the Duke
of Argyll at Sheriffmuir and thought that the experi-
ence then gained of the Highland mode of fighting
would enable him easily to destroy the prince's army.
So sure did he feel of success that on arriving at Edin-
burgh his first care was to order the erection of gibbets
on which to hang his prisoners. On January 13 he
marched out of Edinburgh towards Stirling with an
army of about 8000 men, which included about 1000
Argyllshire Highlanders and a regiment of 600 men
from Glasgow. On January 16 the prince, expecting
Hawley, left a few hundred men to maintain the

THE REBELLION OF 1745 67

blockade of Stirling and drew up his army on the
historic field of Bannockburn. As Hawley did not
appear on that day, the prince moved forward next
day to meet him, and the two armies came together in
the afternoon on Falkirk Moor.

While preparations for battle were being made on
both sides, Hawley, who despised his opponents as a
mere rabble, was being hospitably entertained at
Callander House in the neighbourhood by Lady Kil-
marnock, whose husband was with the prince and who
did everything she could to detain her guest as long as
possible. At length, roused by urgent messages,
Hawley rushed out excitedly without his hat and im-
mediately ordered his dragoons to advance. These
dragoons were to a large extent the same men who had
run away at Colt Brigg and at Prestonpans, and at the
first volley from the Highlanders they wheeled round
and fled. At the same time a violent storm of wind
and rain began to blow in the face of Hawley's men,
who soon broke up and fled both in the centre and on
their left. His right wing made a brave stand and at
first had the best of the fight, but the advance of the
second line of the prince's army with himself at the head
soon drove that wing also into flight. The Highlanders
thus gained a brilliant victory with a loss of forty killed
and twice as many wounded, while Hawley lost about
500 in killed alone. The defeated general retreated to
Edinburgh, where he arrived next day with his troops
in a pitiable state of confusion and disarray.

The victory of Falkirk was no great gain to the
prince, as many of his Highlanders went off home with
their booty. Many of his officers quarrelled about the
respective merits of their own services in the battle, and

68 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

the discontent was greatly increased by the siege of
Stirling, which was regarded by most of his followers as
wasted effort. An incident which occurred the day
after the battle illustrated the extreme difficulty of
managing the Highland army. A private soldier, one
of the chief of Clanran aid's followers, was doing some-
thing to a musket, which went off accidentally and
killed one of the sons of the chief of Glengarry. To
prevent a quarrel between the two clans the innocent
but unfortunate private was shot, but even this did not
satisfy the men of Glengarry, and most of them deserted
to their homes.

The defeat at Falkirk struck the government with
terror and consternation, and the Duke of Cumberland
was immediately ordered back to Scotland to assume
the chief command. He arrived at Holyrood on
January 30, and next day set out for Stirling at the
head of a large and well-equipped army. On February
1 the prince, urged by his principal officers, reluctantly
broke up his camp at Stirling and, more dejected than
ever, began a retreat into the Highlands. With the
help of Lord George Murray, he drew up a careful plan
for an orderly retreat, but the plan was not carried out
and the retreat began in great confusion. The High-
landers crossed the Forth at the Ford of Frew and
marched by Dunblane to Crieff, where they broke up
into two divisions. One division, accompanied by the
prince himself, marched north by Wade's Highland
road; the other, under Lord George Murray, marched
by Montrose and Aberdeen to Inverness, where both
divisions were to unite.

On arriving near Inverness the prince took up his
quarters at Moy Castle, the seat of the chief of the clan

THE REBELLION OF 1745 69

Mackintosh, who was on the Hanoverian side, and
was then with Lord Loudoun. But Lady Mackintosh
adopted the cause of the prince and raised the clan in
his service. On hearing that the prince was at Moy
Castle with only a small number of followers, Lord
Loudoun made a bold attempt to take him prisoner and
so end the war. Accordingly on the night of February
16 he secretly despatched about 1500 of his men, in-
cluding the clan Macleod, from Inverness to surround
Moy Castle and take the prince by surprise. Lady
Mackintosh, however, had received intelligence of this
plan and sent a few trusty men under cover of the dark-
ness to frighten the approaching enemy with war cries
and other signs of battle. The trick succeeded, and
Loudoun's men, thinking that they had fallen into an
ambush, were seized with a sudden panic and fled back
to Inverness in extreme confusion, tumbling down in
the darkness and trampling each other to death in their
wild flight. This incident is known as the Rout of Moy.
Next day the prince assembled as many of his men as
could easily be got together and marched to Inverness.
Lord Loudoun did not wait for his arrival, but fled across
the Beauly Firth into Ross-shire, accompanied by
Duncan Forbes of Culloden, and hotly pursued by the
Earl of Cromarty, who drove them across the Dornoch
Firth into Sutherland. From Sutherland Loudoun and
Forbes fled to Skye, and Cromarty then traversed the
northern counties, but without obtaining many recruits.
The prince took possession of Inverness on February 18
and of Fort George on the 20th. Fort Augustus was
captured shortly afterwards, but an attempt to take
Fort William ended in failure. There were various
minor efforts made from time to time to land men and

70 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

supplies from France for the prince's service, but they
were generally thwarted by the vigilance of the British
ships of war.

Meanwhile the Duke of Cumberland was steadily
advancing northwards. On February 27 he arrived at
Aberdeen and there fixed his headquarters until April
8, when he set out for Inverness. A feeble and unsuc-
cessful effort was made by Lord John Drummond to
dispute the passage of the Spey on the 12th, but the
duke continued his march and arrived at Nairn on the
14th, where some skirmishing took place between his
van, which consisted of Argyll Highlanders, and some
of the prince's men who had not yet quitted the town.
Cumberland's army numbered at least 9000, and they
were the best and most seasoned troops of the British
army. They were well disciplined, completely or-
ganised, with abundant supplies of everything neces-
sary for efficiency, and they were supported by a fleet
sailing along the coast.

The prince and his chief officers passed the night of
April 14 in Culloden House, but his famished troops
were obliged to lie under arms on the cold ground.
Many of them had gone to Inverness and other places
in search of food. They were discontented from want
of pay and they were distracted by divided counsels.
Through the influence of his Irish and French friends,
the prince had come to dislike and distrust some of his
Scottish officers, and especially Lord George Murray,
the ablest and most competent man among them.
Such were the circumstances in which they were called
upon to face the well-equipped and larger army of the
Duke of Cumberland. On the morning of the 15th
they were formed in order of battle, to await the arrival

THE REBELLION OF 1745 71

of their enemy, on Drummossie Moor, near Culloden
House, and about five miles from Inverness. There
they remained all day long without any food, except a
sea biscuit for each man, but no enemy arrived. In the
afternoon intelligence was brought by Lord Elcho, who
had reconnoitred the enemy's camp near Nairn, that it
was the duke's birthday, and that his soldiers were
observing it and apparently did not intend to advance
that day. A council of war was then called, and on the
proposal of Lord George Murray, with the eager ap-
proval of the prince, it was resolved to make an effort
to surprise the duke's camp under cover of the night,
while his soldiers, as it was supposed, would be lying
drunk after the day's festivities. The distance to
traverse was twelve miles, the night was very dark, the
way was difficult, and the men so completely exhausted
that it was found impossible to cover the distance
before dawn. It was therefore resolved, when the van
was within four miles of the duke's camp, to fall back
on Drummossie Moor. Lord George Murray now pro-
posed a retreat into the mountains in order to take
up a position inaccessible to cavalry, but Sir Thomas
Sheridan and the French officers insisted upon giving
battle where they were, and the prince listened to their
foolish advice.

About eight o'clock on the morning of the 16th in-
telligence was received that Cumberland's army was
advancing in full march. The prince's army was then
hurriedly drawn up in two lines with a body of reserves.
The right wing was occupied by the Camerons, the
Stuarts, and the men of Atholl, and the left wing in-
cluded the Macdonalds. The troops present numbered
in all about 5000 men, and in spite of their deplorable

72 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

condition they showed signs of enthusiasm at the
prospect of battle. The duke's army, which was almost
twice as large, advanced in two lines, with cavalry both
on his right and on his left, and he began the battle at
one o'clock by flaying on the ranks of the Highlanders
with his artillery. At the same time a snowstorm
which began to blow in their faces greatly increased
their difficulties, and after an hour's cannonade, which
did great havoc among their ranks, the Highland right
and centre charged against Cumberland's position,
broke through his first line and reached the second,
where they were all but annihilated by the fire of their
opponents. The left wing of the prince's army, how-
ever, did not come to the charge, and on seeing the re-
pulse of their comrades they retreated in good order to
join the rear rank. At the same time the Duke of
Cumberland's men pulled down a wall which protected
the Highlanders' right flank and thus opened the way
for his dragoons to take the prince's second line on the
flank and rear. That line, increased by the left of
the front line, held its ground for some time, though
harassed by a deadly fire, but finding that they were
being outflanked by cavalry on the left as well as on the
right, while Cumberland was reforming his ranks of
infantry to charge their front, they left the field to the
enemy and took to flight. Many of the Highlanders
fled towards Inverness, but the greater part fled to the
mountains. The prince made repeated efforts to rally
his men and lingered on the field after their flight began,
until he was finally led away by his Irish attendants.
The duke's horse took up the pursuit, indiscriminately
slaughtering the fugitives and the peaceful townspeople
of Inverness who had ventured out for news of the

THE REBELLION OF 1745 73

battle. The duke's loss was about 300 killed and
wounded, while more than 1000 of the prince's army
fell on the field of battle. About 1200 of the survivors
were collected by Lord George Murray at Ruthven in
Badenoch, but the prince decided to give up the struggle
and sent orders that they should seek their own safety.
The rebellion was now ended and the work of vengeance
began.

Shortly after the battle Cumberland moved to Fort
Augustus, where he fixed his headquarters for about
two months. From that centre Hawley and he sent
out their soldiers in all directions to exercise every
possible kind of outrage on man and woman alike.
Much has been said, and no doubt with good reason,
about Cumberland's barbarity and cruelty after Cul-
loden, but barbarity and cruelty have in past times been
the invariable accompaniments of the sojourn of a
hostile army among a vanquished people, and the
conduct of Cumberland's army was no worse than the
conduct of armies has far too frequently been in similar
circumstances. But this invasion of the Highlands has
been our fortunate country's last experience of actual
bloodshed and war, and the memory of it has been
allowed to linger perhaps too long among us.

It would not be just, however, to ascribe these
cruelties solely to the English soldiers, as has sometimes
been done. The whig clans, and especially the men
of Argyllshire, who formed part of the duke's army,
behaved at least as badly as any of the English troops,
while many of the Scottish officers endeavoured to win
the duke's favour by an obsequious display of zeal in
carrying out his cruel orders against their own country-
men. On July 18 Cumberland left Fort Augustus and

74 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

returned to Edinburgh, where he was received with the
greatest honour, and where fourteen of the prince's
standards borne by so many chimney sweeps had been
childishly burnt by the public hangman as a proof of
the loyalty of the citizens. From Edinburgh he pro-
ceeded to London, where the notoriety of his cruelties
had preceded him and earned for him the nickname of
the Butcher and a much less fulsome reception. The
government, however, heaped honours upon him and
awarded him a pension of £25,000 a year, while Duncan
Forbes of Culloden, who had done more to uphold the
Hanoverian cause in Scotland than any other man, was
treated with neglect and refused compensation for the
expenses he incurred in supporting the government
during the rebellion. The Duke of Cumberland now
returned to the command of the army in the Nether-
lands, where he was defeated next year by the French
under Marshal Saxe at the battle of Laufeldt. In the
Seven Years' War he received an important command,
soon suffered a great defeat at the battle of Hastenbach
in Hanover in 1757, and shortly afterwards made a
humiliating surrender with 40,000 British soldiers to the
French at Klosterseven, near Bremen. He was then
recalled and degraded from his rank in the army. He
died in 1765 at the age of forty-four.

The government now took up the work of vengeance.
The first victims to fall into their hands were the officers
of the Manchester regiment, which was left at Carlisle
on the retreat from Derby, of whom nine were hanged,
disembowelled, and mangled on Kennington Common,
London. After Culloden the prisons were packed with
unfortunate Highlanders to such an extent that a large
number had to be stowed away on men-of-war and

THE REBELLION OF 1745 75

transports until fever broke out among them and many
of them died. In defiance of the Treaty of Union the
common prisoners were taken out of Scotland to be
tried at Carlisle and York for fear the sympathy of their
own countrymen might make it difficult to obtain con-
victions against them in Scotland. In all, three noble-
men and between seventy and eighty commoners were
executed. Large numbers were transported as slaves
to the American plantations. Lord Balmerino, Lord
Kilmarnock, and the Earl of Cromarty were tried in
Westminster and condemned to death. Cromarty was
reprieved, but the other two were executed on Tower
Hill in August 1746. The Marquis of Tullibardine was
made prisoner, but died in the Tower while awaiting
his trial. His brother, Lord George Murray, made his
escape and died in exile in Holland in 1760. The Duke
of Perth died at sea on his way to France. John
Murray of Broughton, who had been the prince's secre-
tary, was taken prisoner, but turned king's evidence
against Lord Lovat and obtained a pardon. It was
some time after Culloden before Lord Lovat was arrested,
and his trial did not take place until March 1747. He
was found guilty of high treason and beheaded on
Tower Hill on April 9, 1747. Very shortly afterwards
an Act of Indemnity was passed granting pardon to all
the survivors of those who had taken part in the re-
bellion, except eighty of the most important persons
who had escaped. The only one of them who fell into
the hands of the government was Locheil's brother, Dr.
Archibald Cameron, who came to Scotland in 1753 to
plan another insurrection, and was arrested and hanged
at Tyburn in London.

It now remains to trace the subsequent career of the

76 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

prince himself. After quitting Culloden field he dis-
missed all his followers except his Irish attendants and
directed his flight to Gortuleg House near the Falls of
Foyers, in Inverness-shire, where Lord Lovat was then
residing. Here the prince arrived in the afternoon, and
partaking of some light refreshments he proceeded at
once by Fort Augustus to the Glengarry country in the
west. After wandering about on the mainland for some
time, he made his way to the Outer Hebrides, where he
hoped to find a French ship, but was disappointed. His
flight having been traced to these islands, a vigorous
search for him was commenced, and for some time he
remained in hiding in South Uist, until about the end
of June, when he was rescued from his perilous position
by the heroism of a young lady, Flora Macdonald, who
conducted him in the disguise of an Irish servant
woman to Skye. From Skye he made his way to the
mainland, where he had some more narrow escapes, but
though the government offered a reward of £30,000 for
his capture no one could be found mean enough to
betray him, and on September 20 he succeeded in
getting on board a French vessel at Lochnanuagh in
Moidart, where he landed a little more than a year
before. From there he sailed to France and landed at
Morlaix near Brest on September 29. He remained in
France until the end of the War of the Austrian Succes-
sion in 1748, when the British government stipulated,
as one of the conditions of peace, that he should
not be allowed to remain in that country. He was
then forcibly conveyed from Paris to Avignon, which
belonged to the Pope, and never again set foot on
French territory. For a long time he wandered about
from place to place, watched by spies and becoming

THE REBELLION OF 1745 77

more and more of an outcast. He is said to have
visited London more than once and to have been
present in Westminster Abbey at the coronation of
King George III. His supporters gradually deserted
him, and when his father died in 1766 and the courts of
Europe refused to acknowledge his claims he adopted
the title of the Count of Albany. In 1772 he married
a German princess, Louisa of Stohlberg, but the
marriage proved an unhappy one, for the once gallant
and chivalrous prince had degenerated into a hopeless
drunkard. It is said that his taste for strong drink
began during his hardships as a fugitive in the High-
lands after the battle of Culloden. He died at Rome
on January 31, 1788.

The next heir to the House of Stuart was his brother
Henry, Duke of York, a priest and cardinal of the
Roman Catholic Church, who in 1761 became Bishop of
Fascati in Italy. He never asserted his claims to the
throne, and towards the close of his life he was granted
a yearly pension of £4000 from King George III. He
died at Rome on July 13, 1807, in the eighty-third year
of his age, the last legitimate male of the House of
Stuart. He bequeathed all the crown jewels which his
grandfather, James II., had taken from England in
1688 to George IV., then Prince of Wales, who in 1819
gave fifty guineas for the erection of a monument by
Canova in St. Peter's, Rome, which bears a simple in-
scription to James III., Charles III., and Henry IX.

CHAPTER VI

AFTER CULLODEN

With the defeat of the clans on Culloden Moor there
began in Scotland a new era. Old things had passed
away and new things were coming to take their place.
The sword alone was not sufficient to restore permanent
order and to remove all the causes of rebellion, and so
various legislative changes became necessary. The first
was an Act to disarm the Highlanders, and August i,
1746, was fixed as the day by which all arms had to
be surrendered. Another measure prohibited the wear-
ing of the kilt or tartan except by soldiers, on the
ground that the associations of the Highland garb
tended to keep up the warlike spirit of the race. The
estates of those chiefs who had joined in the rebellion
were confiscated and placed in the hands of commis-
sioners. These estates were not very numerous, as
many of the chief men among the rebels had taken the
precaution to secure their estates to their own family
by transferring the nominal ownership of them on some
secret understanding to kinsmen who remained neutral
or sided with the government. Hence it was that
father and son or brother and brother were so fre-
quently found on opposite sides. Many of the confis-
cated estates were eventually restored and are still held
by the descendants of men who took part in the
rebellion.

78

AFTER CULLODEN 79

But something more than this was necessary if
rebellion was to be rendered impossible for the future,
and the feudal system which still lingered in the High-
lands and placed undue power in the hands of the chiefs
must be abolished. The clans held their lands on con-
dition of " wardship " or military service, and knew no
law save obedience to the commands of the chief, who
was both king and judge among them. It was this that
made it so easy for the chief to raise his clan and become
a source of danger to the peace of the community. In
the parliamentary session of 1747, therefore, two Acts
were passed dealing with this question. One Act
abolished land tenure by wardship and converted all
services, due to the superior landlord, into money pay-
ments. The other abolished the hereditary jurisdic-
tions of Scotland, and for the future justice was to be
administered not by the local baron or chief, who had
hitherto possessed the power of pit (or prison) and
gallows over his own people, but by sheriff-substitutes
appointed by the crown. The chief promoter of this
measure was the Lord Chancellor, Lord Hardwicke,
and he was opposed, though somewhat feebly, by the
English tories, who saw in it a dangerous attack on the
rights of property, as well as by Duncan Forbes of
Culloden and other leading Scotsmen who had no
sympathy with the Jacobite cause, but could not bring
themselves to view with satisfaction a measure which
not only abolished a system on which so much of their
own influence depended, but also added so largely to
the power of the crown at the expense of the ancient
rights of the aristocracy. The small sum of £152,000
was voted by the government to compensate the
Scottish nobility for the loss of their hereditary juris-

80 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

diction, but only the greater barons and chiefs received
any part of this compensation, as the claims of the
smaller ones to hereditary jurisdiction were not ad-
mitted. Another Act was passed increasing the severity
of the penal laws already in force against the Scottish
Episcopalians. These measures were accompanied in
the same year, 1747, by the Act of Indemnity already
referred to.

The absolute and irresponsible power hitherto pos-
sessed by the landed aristocracy of Scotland had fre-
quently been used as a terrible instrument of tyranny
and oppression in the hands of unscrupulous men. Its
abolition proved of great benefit to the common people,
and among other things placed the first check on the
cruel practice of kidnapping, which had recently sprung
up not only in Scotland but in parts of England also.
We have already found that many of those who had
taken part in the recent rebellions were transported to
America, where labour was becoming more and more
scarce as plantations increased, and a good price was
always willingly paid for a slave. The negro slave trade
had not yet commenced. Thus landlords began to
realise that it was far more profitable to transport a
culprit to the plantations than to hang him, and so
sentences of transportation became more and more
common. But that was not all. About 1740 nefarious
cliques, which sometimes included magistrates and
lairds, began to be formed for the purpose of kidnapping
boys and youths for the American plantations. These
luckless victims were secured in various ways, by force,
by false promises, by seizing boys on country roads or
kidnapping them from their beds in remote country
cottages, and during a terrible famine from which the

DUNCAN FORBES OF Cl'LLODEN.

AFTER CULLODEN 81

country suffered in 1740 children were actually sold by
parents for food. These criminal practices became
much more difficult to carry on after the abolition of
the jurisdiction of unscrupulous lairds and chiefs in
1747, but it was not until about twenty years afterwards
that the feeling of the country was effectively aroused
against the evil by the story of a man named Peter
Williamson, who had been kidnapped in Aberdeen at
the age of eleven, sold to a planter for £16, and after
many strange and curious adventures made his way
back to Aberdeen to rack the feelings of his countrymen
by the tale of his wrongs.

So long as Jacobitism was a living political force it
served as a bond of union between its Scottish adherents
and a considerable section of the English tories, but
that bond was severed by the defeat at Culloden, and
the immediate result was that Scotland became more
isolated from England than before. So far, English
statesmen concerned themselves but little with Scottish
affairs, which both Walpole and Pelham were satisfied
to leave in the able hands of Lord Islay, afterwards
Duke of Argyll, and his friends. The Scottish people
themselves took very little interest either in parliament
or in imperial politics. As a rule they were ready to
support the government that chanced to be in power
in spite of many well-founded complaints against the
indifference and the injustice of parliament, which, how-
ever, did not treat the people of Scotland any worse
than it treated the people of England. Occasionally
the affairs of Scotland were entrusted to a responsible
Scottish minister or secretary. The last who held this
office was the Marquis of Tweeddale in 1744-1745, and
after that no other secretary for Scotland was appointed

82 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

again until 1885. The usual custom, however, was to
entrust the management of Scottish affairs to whichever
member of the government was felt to be the most com-
petent and best qualified to undertake it.

The events immediately following the rebellion were
not of such a nature as to improve the feeling between
the two nations, but Scotland neither entered into use-
less opposition to England nor held exclusively and
sullenly to herself. What she did was to place herself,
as a matter of right, on a footing of equality with her
powerful neighbour and to enter boldly into competi-
tion for whatever prize or reward the British Empire had
to offer ; and so during the second half of the eighteenth
century we find Scotsmen not only eagerly developing
the resources of their own country, but rising in large
numbers to eminence and fame in England, India, and
the colonies, as well as at home. On their return to
their native country many of them bought estates, on
the improvement and development of which they spent
much money, and before the end of the century a large
portion of the landed property of Scotland had come
into the possession of men who had made fortunes in
India. These men did not lose their patriotism nor
their interest in their native land as the result of suc-
cesses achieved and fortunes acquired in other lands;
but their views of life were enlarged and their sym-
pathies widened, and thus they helped to bring the two
nations closer together. At the same time Scottish
children were frequently sent to England for their
education, while English youths were attracted to the
Scottish universities by the fame of the professors.
Scottish men of letters, too, began to study the literary
language of the south, and as they gradually acquired

AFTER CULLODEN 83

the characteristics of a good style, they not only found
in England a profitable market for their works, but at
the same time exerted a powerful influence upon the
tendencies of English letters and English thought.

But there was yet another bond of union beginning to
draw them more closely together, which appealed more
powerfully still to the common people of both nations.
In the great victories which at this period did so much
to promote the growth of the British Empire and to
kindle the enthusiasm of the British race, Scottish
soldiers of all ranks from the general downwards played
a prominent and distinguished part. Thus the barriers
that divided the two nations began gradually to dis-
appear, and both began to feel that their interests and
their destiny lay in one and the same path. After a
little wavering at first, then, which was not altogether
unnatural in the circumstances, Scotland finally de-
clined to be drawn into a provincial narrowness such as
might find its political expression in a cry for the repeal
of the union. That cry might suit a partner who felt
only his own weakness and inability to maintain his
rights, but the better and more enterprising class of
Scotsmen were too conscious of their own strength to
have any such feeling, and so they felt themselves in no
sense wronged, but very greatly benefited, by a union
which widened the field of their energies and gave them
their full share in all the wealth and all the glory of a
great and growing empire. Had Scotland held aloof
from England after Culloden and endeavoured to set up
a narrow patriotism and literature of her own, she
would have found her poverty to be an insuperable
obstacle in the way of sound progress, her energies
would thus have been wasted to little or no purpose,

84 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

and in course of time she would probably have lapsed
into a mere province of England. But by entering so
readily and so energetically into the great English move-
ments and enterprises of the age, by asserting all her
rights as a partner on equal terms, and by rising superior
to provincial tendencies and becoming imperial, she
proved her claim to be regarded as a nation, and not
only preserved what was best and most valuable in her
nationality, but made her influence powerfully felt, and
that invariably for good, in all the institutions and all
the activities of our world-wide empire. In fact it is no
exaggeration to say that in the building up of that
empire, Scotland, in proportion to her population and
resources, has long held the foremost place.

It is no small credit to the people of Scotland at this
time that the first English statesman to call forth their
enthusiasm was William Pitt, often spoken of as " The
Elder Pitt " or " The Great Commoner " and subse-
quently created Earl of Chatham. In 1756 Pitt, who
had already made a name for himself in the House of
Commons, took office in the Duke of Newcastle's whig
government as secretary of state, and became the real
though not the nominal head of it. It was in the same
year that the great Seven Years' War began (1756-1763),
in which we had to fight against France in order to retain
our American colonies and our growing Indian Empire.
The immediate cause of this terrible war, so far as we
were concerned, was a dispute about boundaries between
British and French colonists in North America. Other
nations joined in for reasons of their own, Great Britain
and Prussia being arrayed on one side with France,
Austria, Saxony, and Russia against them. The war
was waged on the continent of Europe, in America, and

AFTER CULLODEN 85

in India, and Pitt, who cared little about political
parties, immediately undertook the management of it
in his own way. His plans were marked by unusual
sagacity, energy, and success, and the enthusiasm not
only of England, but of Scotland also, was called forth
by the glory of his victories.

Pitt was the first English statesman to see Scotland
in her true light and to appreciate aright the im-
portant part she was destined to play in the building up
of the great British Empire. It was he, too, who began
to employ Highland soldiers in large numbers and so
laid the foundations of the Highland regiments whose
heroic achievements have shed so much lustre and
honour upon British arms. So far back as 1738 (when
the country was on the verge of war with Spain) , Duncan
Forbes of Culloden had proposed to embody some
of the Highland clans as regiments. His plans were
approved by Lord Islay and even by Sir Robert Wal-
pole, but their colleagues in the government refused to
give their assent, and so the proposal had to be dropped.
It was left to Pitt, after the lapse of many years, to put
it into effect, and it was his proud boast that he had
been the first to appreciate the soldierly qualities of the
Highlanders and to enlist them in the service of the
empire. It was about 1757, shortly after the outbreak
of the Seven Years' War, that recruiting became vigor-
ous in the Highlands, and between that date and the
peace of 1815 about fifty battalions of Highlanders
were raised. " I have sought," said Pitt, " for merit
wherever it was to be found. It is my boast that I was
the first minister who looked for it and found it in the
Mountains of the North. I called it forth and drew
into your service a hardy and intrepid race of men who,

86 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

when left by your jealousy, became a prey to the artifice
of your enemies and who in the war before the last had
well-nigh gone to overthrow the state. These men in
the last war were brought to combat by your side.
They served with fidelity and they fought with honour
and conquered for you in every part of the world."

On October 25, 1760, George II. died and was suc-
ceeded by his grandson, George III. Since 1688 the
great whig party which carried out the Revolution had
practically ruled the country, but George III., who had
been educated in tory principles by his tutor, the Earl
of Bute, made it his policy to free the crown from the
tyranny of this dominant party and to assert his own
% influence and authority as king. In 1762 Newcastle
resigned. The Earl of Bute now became the first Scot-
tish Prime Minister, and in 1763 brought the great Seven
Years' War to a victorious close by the Treaty of Paris,
which secured for us possession of Canada, Nova Scotia,
New Brunswick, Cape Breton Island, Prince Edward
Island, several islands in the West Indies, as well as the
sovereignty of India. Nevertheless, this peace was
loudly, but very wrongly, denounced by the whigs as
disadvantageous to the country and was therefore very
unpopular. A section of the discomfited whigs, who
called themselves the Patriots, and prominent among
whom was the disreputable John Wilkes, now sought
to discredit Bute's tory government, not only by de-
nouncing the peace, but by raising against Bute, and
Scotsmen in general, a fierce outcry which was readily
taken up by the mobs of London. In the storm of
abuse which followed even the king himself was so
persistently included that neither he nor Bute could
safely appear in the streets of London without protec-

JOHN STUART, 3rd Earl of Bute.

AFTER CULLODEN 87

tion. In a few months Bute resigned, but the rabid
. abuse of Scotland still continued, being prompted to a
large extent by jealousy of the successes which Scots-
men were achieving in all departments of public life.
Meanwhile Scotland herself treated all this abuse with
utter indifference. She had nothing but contempt for
such patriots as John Wilkes — the patriotism which Dr.
Johnson described as " the last refuge of a scoundrel " —
and so the good feeling between the best men in both
countries still continued. The only effect of the abuse
was that for quite a generation the feeling of Scotland
was strongly on the side of the king and his party
against those who posed as the friends of liberty in
England.

When Archibald, Duke of Argyll, died in 1761, the
administration of Scottish affairs passed to the Earl of
Bute, or rather to his brother, Mr. Stuart Mackenzie,
until 1765, when the latter resigned the office he held in
the government of the day, and it appears that during
the various political changes which followed it was
thought that to concentrate the affairs of Scotland in
the hands of one man was unsafe for the balance of
parties. In 1775 a new parliament met with the tories,
who had the support of the Scottish members, in a strong
majority. Lord. North continued as Prime Minister,
while Henry Dundas became Lord Advocate. For the
next thirty years Dundas virtually ruled Scotland.

Lord North's administration (1770-1782) was a period
of disaster. It fell to his lot to conduct the war with
our revolted American colonies, and this he had to do,
not only against nearly the whole of Europe, but also
against a fierce opposition at home. Except in Glasgow
this opposition, however, received little support in Scot-

88 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

land, for the leaders of it represented the same party
that in Bute's time had endeavoured to secure the
support of the mob by a foul-mouthed slandering of the
Scottish nation. Besides, the people of Scotland, being
much less involved in political strife than was the case
in England, were able to see the merits of the dispute
in a truer light, and to appreciate at its worth the fact
that the colonists had provoked the war to avoid the
necessity of contributing towards the payment of the
debt that the British government had incurred in
defending them against France during the Seven Years'
War. It is to the great credit of the people of Scotland
that patriotism of that kind did not enlist their sym-
pathy, and though they could not help contrasting Lord
North's misfortunes with the glories of Pitt's time, yet
the Scottish members of Parliament, almost to a man,
gave their support to Lord North and the king. As
the war proceeded, France, secretly backed by Frederick
the Great of Prussia, joined against us, then Spain and
then Holland, while Russia, Prussia, Sweden, and Den-
mark gave our enemies their tacit support. The whole
maritime power of the world was thus arrayed against
us, and the loss of our supremacy on the sea, though
only for a short time, virtually brought the war which
began in 1775 to a disastrous close in 1781. By the
Treaty of Versailles in 1783 Britain recognised the
United States of America as an independent power.

On the whole, Scotland, so far, had taken little or no
interest in parliamentary politics since the union. One
reason, of course, was that the people had no direct
means of making their influence politically felt, for the
franchise was so limited that the parliamentary electors
formed but a mere fraction of the population. But the

AFTER CULLODEN 89

question of parliamentary reform was beginning to
engage attention, and social questions of various kinds
were also becoming more or less prominent.

In 1773 serious riots, known as meal mobs, occurred
along the valley of the Tay between Perth and Dundee,
in which granaries were attacked by poor people from
the towns, and protests raised against the exportation
of corn and the consequent raising of prices. These
riots had the effect of drawing attention to the condi-
tion of the poor, and the question of their relief soon
began to rise into importance and urgency.

Another movement that was creating anxiety and
alarm at this time was the constant stream of emigrants
leaving the Highlands for the American colonies. As
far back as 1722 some Highland emigrants were enlisted
at Inverness for Georgia, but it was not until much later
that emigration became common in Scotland. A
number of Highland soldiers settled in America after
the Seven Years' War about 1765, and during the next
few years large numbers of their countrymen followed
them, until the outbreak of the War of Independence
in 1775 put a stop for some time to the tide of emigra-
tion. During the war the Highland emigrants, to a
man, remained loyal to Britain, and greatly distin-
guished themselves by their courage and valour in
battle as well as by their constancy in the loss and
suffering brought upon them by the unsuccessful issue
of the war. With the peace of 1783, following the
famine of 1782, emigration to America once more be-
came common. One cause of this was that the people
were being cleared off the land in some places in order
that the smaller holdings might be united into large
sheep farms. Another cause was the decay of the clan

9o SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

system and the inability of barons and chiefs to provide
any longer for the necessities of their people, whose
numbers increased so rapidly during the peace which
followed the battle of Culloden that they could not all
find a livelihood in their old homes.

But these were not the only causes. There was a
spirit of unrest abroad among the people at the time,
and many were prompted to seek new homes, partly by
love of adventure and partly by a desire to share in the
rumoured wealth of the New World, of which the
soldiers who fought in the Seven Years' War brought
back such glowing accounts. Thus the depopulation
of country parishes went on in spite of the efforts of
landlords and ministers to prevent it. Those who tried
to discourage emigration were only accused of acting
against the interests of the common people by en-
deavouring to keep up a supply of cheap labour at
home. These emigrants were not the class of men that
the country could best afford to lose, for they were not
only the strongest and most enterprising, they were also
the most law-abiding and best educated, as may be
gathered from the fact that they used to take school-
masters with them at their own expense for the educa-
tion of their children in their new home. The attitude
they took up during the War of Independence proved
the strength of their character, the constancy of their
convictions, and the depth of their loyalty to the tradi-
tions and ideals of their old homes. To-day, across the
gulf of time, their posterity in America may proudly
look unto the rock whence they are hewn.

In 1775 the question of parliamentary reform was
brought prominently forward in Midlothian, the con-
stituency represented in Parliament by Henry Dundas,

HENRY I>UNDAS, VISCOUNT MELVILLE.

AFTER CULLODEN 91

who declared himself favourable to such a project,
though the subsequent course of events compelled him
to change his mind. Henceforth the question of
reform becomes increasingly important and urgent.

The same year, '1775, witnessed the commencement
of • the emancipation from serfdom of the Scottish
colliers and salt miners. Hitherto they were bound for
life to the mine in which they worked and were bought
and sold with it. The progress of their emancipation,
however, was but slow, for, although it began in 1775, it
was not until 1799 that the last vestige of their bondage
was removed.

Another question in which Scotland was greatly in-
terested at this time was the establishment of a militia.
In the years 1778-1779, John Paul Jones, a renegade Scot,
who had served in turn under France and Russia and
was now cruising the seas in the service of the revolted
American colonies, threatened to make a descent upon
the coast of Scotland. These dangers called attention
to the necessity for home defence, and the sanction of
Parliament for the establishment of a Scottish militia
was sought, not for the first time, but without success.
It was opposed by some who were still afraid of the
Jacobite influence in Scotland, and by others who
feared lest the establishment of a militia might interfere
with Scottish recruiting for the regular army. The
question, however, was not allowed to rest, but it was
not until 1797 that a Scottish militia was raised as part
of the constitutional forces of the crown and placed
upon the same footing as the militia in England.

Such were some of the questions in which the people
of Scotland were deeply interested in 1783, when
William Pitt, " the Younger Pitt," became Prime

92 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

Minister at the early age of twenty-four. His accept-
ance of office was at first laughed at by the leading men
in Parliament, and he himself was sneered at as a mere
schoolboy. Only one man of importance stood faith-
fully by him from the outset and that was Henry
Dundas. In fact it was Dundas who first recommended
the king to appoint him. Henceforth these two men
became close and sincere friends, and for the long period
of about a quarter of a century that Pitt ruled the
British Empire he had no abler or more sincere sup-
porter than Henry Dundas.

CHAPTER VII

WHIGS AND TORIES

From the Revolution until the time of Henry Dundas
the leading men in Scotland were nominally whigs, but
in reality they took very little interest in party politics
as then understood in England, and were supporters of
the king's government whichever party chanced to be
in power. During the second half of the century a
change began to take place in the feeling of Scotland,
and the distinction between political parties gradually
became more and more pronounced. Through the in-
fluence of Henry Dundas, who represented what was
most characteristic and perhaps best in the thought and
aspirations of Scotland at this time, the feeling of the
country, so far as the franchise gave expression to it,
became more and more tory. Needless to say the
ascendency of toryism produced an equally pronounced
whig opposition, and so party feeling began to run high
among all classes throughout the whole country. But
some time had to pass before this new whig party was
in a position to make its influence felt.

In the Church the moderates 1 still formed the
dominant party, but in 1778 they took up a movement
in support of a measure, which the government was
contemplating, to provide relief for Roman Catholics in
Scotland, such as had recently been granted in England.

1 See pp. 193, 194.
93

94 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

This proposal was strongly opposed by the evangelical x
party, and was followed by anti-Roman Catholic riots
in Edinburgh and Glasgow in 1779, and by such an
outbreak of anti-Roman Catholic feeling throughout
the country that the government finally decided to
abandon it. In Scotland the whig opposition de-
nounced the government for contemplating such a
measure, whereas the English whigs denounced them
for dropping it. The people of Scotland, as a whole,
were not yet prepared to accept such a measure, and
henceforth the influence of the moderate party which
was in favour of Roman Catholic relief began to de-
cline. The evangelical party, sometimes called the
" High-flyers " or " The Wild Party," became more
noisy and more aggressive, and in the General Assembly
of 1782, while the address to the crown was being passed,
they proposed an amendment condemning Lord North's
government. The debate on this amendment was very
animated, and though the moderates were still able to
defeat it, yet the bitterness of political strife had now
entered into the Church with its many accompanying
evils.

Pitt's policy towards Scotland, and especially towards
the Highlands, was one of conciliation. Thousands of
Highlanders had joined the army to lay down their
lives on many a hard-fought field. Thus the Highland
garb which they wore had become the symbol of all that
was bravest and most loyal in the British army, and in
1783 the Act which made it illegal for any but soldiers
to wear it was repealed, but by this time the Lowland
garb had come into general use and the common people
in the Highlands never again took to wearing the kilt.
In the following year, 1784, there was passed another

1See pp. 193, 194.

WHIGS AND TORIES 95

important Act of conciliation, by which the estates for-
feited in 1745 and subsequently vested in the govern-
ment were restored to such representatives of the
original owners as could establish a hereditary claim to
them. This measure was opposed by Lord Chancellor
Thurlow, but he received very little support.

Meantime the question of parliamentary and muni-
cipal reform was fast coming into prominence, and so
greatly was the necessity for such a reform felt that even
those whose privileges were being attacked could hardly
urge any objection against it. There were about sixty-
five boroughs in Scotland at this time and about fifty of
them petitioned for reform, complaining that members
of parliament and magistrates were practically self-
elected, and that the rights and the property of the
inhabitants were very seriously invaded. The fifteen
burgh members of parliament were elected by various
municipal bodies which were self chosen, and for the
county members there were little more than two thou-
sand electors for the whole of Scotland. The move-
ment soon became general. Pitt and Dundas were
both favourable and were in fact advocates for reform
themselves, but unfortunately Scottish reform became
a party question, and was put forward by the opposi-
tion in parliament in such a way as to make it impos-
sible for the government to take it up. Such was the
state of affairs in 1789 when the great Revolution broke
out in France, soon to develop into such an extrava-
gance of outrage and violence that the cautious and the
prudent became alarmed, and the prospect of a satis-
factory reform began to look more and more hopeless.
In fact the outbreak of war with France put off all
chances of reform for another quarter of a century.

96 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

Political feeling, however, had been aroused. The first
note of a long and bitter contest had been sounded and
Scotland soon became divided into two hostile political
camps.

The French Republic declared war against us early in
1793, and our efforts by land in the early stages of that
war were unsuccessful, but in 1794 Lord Howe gained
a great victory over the French fleet off Brest. Next
year Holland and Spain joined France against us, but in
1797 the Spanish fleet was destroyed by Sir John Jervis
off Cape St. Vincent, in Portugal, and later in the same
year the Dutch fleet was defeated in a great battle off
Camperdown on the coast of Holland by a Scottish sailor,
Admiral Duncan, afterwards Viscount Duncan of Camper-
down, who thus put an end to all immediate danger of
invasion. In 1798 a French fleet which had conveyed
an army to Egypt with a view finally to the conquest of
India was destroyed by Nelson in the Battle of the Nile
or Aboukir Bay, and in 1801 a Scotsman, Sir Ralph
Abercromby, who was himself mortally wounded, de-
feated the French in the Battle of Alexandria and drove
them out of Egypt. In 1805 Napoleon made great
preparations once more for the invasion of England, but
the combined fleets of France and Spain were destroyed
in the Battle of Trafalgar near Gibraltar by Lord
Nelson, who was killed in the battle, but his great
victory put an end to all danger of a French invasion.
The war still continued, but in 1808 the situation under-
went a great change. In that year the Spaniards,
having risen in revolt against Napoleon, who had tried
to force his brother Joesph upon them as their king,
appealed to Britain for help. An army was sent to
their aid and thus began the Peninsular War (1808-

VISCOUNT DUNCAN OF CAMPERDOWN.

WHIGS AND TORIES 97

1814). The command was assumed early in the war by
a great Scottish soldier, Sir John Moore, who was killed
in the Battle of Corunna in 1809. He was succeeded by
Sir Arthur Wellesley, afterwards Duke of Wellington,
under whose great generalship the British army gradu-
ally asserted its superiority on many a hard-fought field,
and drove the French step by step over the Pyrenees,
until the crowning victory of Waterloo in 1815 made
Great Britain the leading power of the world and
brought the weary and exhausted nations of Europe a
long-desired peace. By the Treaty of Paris, which
followed, we retained permanent possession of Malta,
the Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius, and British Guiana.
During this great war, which lasted for nearly a quarter
of a century, our very existence as a nation was some-
times at stake, and in achieving the final victory none
played a more important or heroic part than the Scot-
tish soldier and especially the Highlander. Sir Charles
Stuart, a son of the Earl of Bute, first Prime Minister
of the reign of George III., was the ablest British
general in the early part of the war, while Sir Ralph
Abercromby and Sir John Moore were the chief agents
in creating the efficiency and fighting ardour of the army
that Wellington afterwards led to victory.

Needless to say the French Revolution found sup-
porters in Scotland, and with them the agitation for
reform soon became identified. In 1790 the whigs of
Dundee passed an address to the National Assembly
(that is, the republican government) of France. The
example set by Dundee was taken up in other places
and other addresses followed. Pitt still admitted the
justice of the cry for reform, but he considered the
country to be in too excited a state for such a question

G

98 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

to be taken up with the calmness and judgment which
its importance demanded. Dundas was even more
strongly opposed to any attempt at dealing with the
question under the circumstances which prevailed than
Pitt was, and the common sense of ordinary people
felt outraged by theories of liberty, equality, and
fraternity which led in their practical application to the
barbarous horrors which were daily reported from
France. In 1792 a society of reformers, called the
" Association of the Friends of the People," was formed
in England and immediately spread into Scotland,
where the agitation for reform soon became identified
with its members, many of whom were eager students
of Tom Paine's Rights of Man, a seditious work which
appeared about this time, while their meetings assumed
so violent a tone that the government found it neces-
sary to issue a royal proclamation against seditious
writings and meetings.

This was in May 1792, and on the king's birthday,
June 4, there occurred in Edinburgh, by way of pro-
test against Dundas and the government, a serious riot
which had to be dispersed by the military. The royal
proclamation was followed in 1793 and 1794 by several
prosecutions, which in the heat of strife were unfortu-
nately conducted in a manner reflecting but little credit
on the judicial bench of Scotland. In all these trials
the leading judge on the bench was the Lord Justice-
Clerk, Lord Braxfield, a coarse, masterful man of
powerful intellect and rough and ready wit, who
despised popular opinion and disliked change. He
admitted no necessity for reform and held that the
landed interest alone was entitled to representation,
that the British constitution was the best that ever

WHIGS AND TORIES 99

existed, and that it was impossible to make it better.
He strained every point in the law against the de-
fendants and was as much a prosecutor as he was judge.
Braxfield, however, was an honest man, without any
taint of corruption or any personal ends to serve, and
there can be no doubt that in his own rough way he
represented the predominant feeling of Scotland at that
time. The French republicans had declared war
against Great Britain with the avowed object, as
already stated, of promoting revolutionary principles,
and one can hardly wonder that, at home, the prevail-
ing feeling against the politicians who were suspected
of being ready to play into the hands of their country's
enemies was one of indignation and alarm.

The chief men tried for sedition were Thomas Muir,
a young and well-educated advocate, Thomas Fyshe
Palmer, an Englishman of good family and a graduate
of Cambridge, William Skirving, a friend of Palmer and
educated at Edinburgh University, Maurice Margarot,
and Joseph Fitzgerald. The views expressed by these
men and the offences with which they were charged
could hardly be described as extreme or dangerous, but
they were guilty of disregarding the royal proclamation
which had recently been issued against seditious writ-
ings and meetings while the country was in a state of
panic, and they were all sentenced to long periods of
transportation, of twelve and fourteen years. These
trials led to keen discussion in Parliament, where the
bias shown against the prisoners by the judges was
vigorously and eloquently denounced by Fox, Sheridan,
and other whig speakers. But the opinions of these
men commanded little respect in Scotland, and their
adverse criticism only helped to confirm the feeling of
the country in favour of Braxfield's conduct.

ioo SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

In April 1794 a riot occurred in one of the Edinburgh
theatres, where some Irish students, who refused to
uncover during the singing of the national anthem,
were beaten into respectful' behaviour by some young
tories who were present. This disturbance is worth
mentioning only because Sir Walter Scott, then a
young man, was one of the tory leaders in the fray.
Nevertheless, the influence of the tory party in Scotland
was perceptibly declining. The municipal administra-
tion of the country was undoubtedly corrupt and
oppressive. Many of the tories were narrow and selfish
and thought only of the interests and privileges of their
own class, while those among them who felt the neces-
sity for reform were frightened lest any attempt to
carry out changes in such unsettled times might end in
anarchy. Thus the way was being prepared for the
rise of a new whig party, which was formed about 1796
under the leadership of Henry Erskine, an Edinburgh
advocate of noble birth, eminent talent, great eloquence,
and other popular gifts. The new party soon began to
make their presence felt and in 1802 they started the
Edinburgh Review, the leading spirits in that enterprise
being Francis Jeffrey, Henry Brougham, Sydney Smith,
a clergyman of the Church of England then living in
Edinburgh, and Francis Horner, afterwards a prominent
whig member of Parliament. The new review was
brilliantly conducted and soon acquired a wide circle
of readers not only in Scotland but in England as well.
At first its politics were not very pronounced, but it
gradually showed more and more bias until at last it
became the avowed and ardent advocate of whig prin-
ciples of progress and reform. These youthful leaders
of the new whig party were men of conspicuous talent

WHIGS AND TORIES 101

and great enterprise, but their outlook was narrow ;
they were out of sympathy with many of the traditions
that their countrymen cherished most dearly, and they
were disliked by the two greatest Scotsmen of the age,
Sir Walter Scott and the Rev. Dr. Thomas Chalmers.
Another young whig of the period, who afterwards
played a great part in the affairs of Scotland, was Henry
Cockburn. For many years the Edinburgh Review had
the field all to itself, but in 1817 Blackwood' s Magazine
was started in opposition to it, and in the same year
the Scotsman was started as the organ of the whig party.
The Quarterly Review had been started in London in the
tory interest and in opposition to the Edinburgh Review
in 1809.

In 1806, Henry Dundas, now Lord Melville, was im-
peached by the whig opposition for " gross malversa-
tion and breach of duty " as treasurer of the navy. The
news of his acquittal on all the charges brought against
him was received in Scotland with an enthusiasm which
for a time lessened the influence of the whigs and ac-
centuated the feeling between themselves and the tories.
It was during the excitement and clamour preceding
this trial and while his greatest friend was still under
the cloud that Pitt died on January 23, 1806.

But in spite of this temporary tory triumph there
were various social causes at work which helped to
maintain the influence of the whigs. Side by side with
the increase of wealth there was also, especially in the
larger towns, a startling increase of poverty, which
called for remedial measures. And even that was not
all. From 1808 to 1813 there was a succession of bad
harvests, and as supplies could not be obtained from
abroad because of the war there was great scarcity of

102 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

food and prices became exorbitantly high. The high
price of wheat gave an artificial stimulus to agriculture,
which even legislative protection could not maintain
after our trade with the continent was restored by the
peace of 1815. At the same time the increase of capital
among the commercial classes led to an over-production
of manufactured goods for which there was no market.
The result was that, while the depression in agriculture
was driving farm labourers into the towns, manufac-
tures had to be suspended and thousands were thrown
out of employment. All these circumstances were used
by the whigs to promote the advancement of their own
party, while the reactionary toryism of the period,
though fully conscious of the national distress, seemed to
neglect it, and apparently sought no other remedy but
repression.

In 1817 there was a series of state prosecutions against
political agitators charged with sedition and treason,
but the Lord Advocate and the crown lawyers con-
ducted the cases badly and feebly and the trials proved
abortive. The only practical result was to make the
agitation for reform more violent than ever, until in
1820 a serious attempt was made in Glasgow to bring
about an insurrection which had to be suppressed by
military force. On April 6 an armed mob set out from
Glasgow to Kilsyth, in Stirlingshire, where they ex-
pected to be joined by a number of men sufficiently
large to take possession of the Carron ironworks in order
to supply themselves with artillery. On the way they
were met at Bonnymuir, near Falkirk, by a body of
yeomanry, when a struggle took place in which some
lives were lost and several rioters taken prisoners.
There were riots also at Stirling, Dumbarton, Paisley,

WHIGS AND TORIES 103

and elsewhere, and in the trials which followed twenty-
four of the prisoners were sentenced to death, but the
sentence was carried out only in three cases — one was
hanged in Glasgow and two at Stirling.

It would be wrong, however, to suppose, as was some-
times done, that the tory party thought of no other
remedy but repression for these disturbances. Many
of them felt the necessity for remedial legislation and
were willing to give the movement for reform their
support now that all danger from abroad had passed
away. Under the influence of such men as the Duke
of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel the patriotism and
the national feeling of the old tory party were to a large
extent restored, and they became sincerely interested,
not merely in the preservation of privileges, but in the
well-being and prosperity of the nation at large. The
tory party still had the sympathy and the support of
many of the best and the greatest men in Scotland, as
being more national and more patriotic than the whig
party, but the bitterness of political partisanship had
considerably toned down before the Reform Bill was
passed by the whig ministry of Earl Grey in 1832. The
passing of this Bill was hailed in Scotland with a frenzy
of enthusiasm as the dawn of a new era of liberty and
prosperity, and the general election which followed
shortly after resulted in an overwhelming majority for
the whigs, but needless to say the popular hope was not
fulfilled.

In Scotland the representation had been much more
imperfect and corrupt than in England, but it was now
entirely changed. The county franchise was given to
all holders of property paying a yearly rent of £50.
The borough franchise was given to householders pay-

104 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

ing a yearly rent of £10. The number of county mem-
bers remained the same as before, the borough members
were increased from fifteen to twenty-three, making a
total of fifty-three members for the whole of Scotland.
The Scottish Reform Act of 1868 raised the number to
sixty, and the Act of 1884 to seventy-two, distributed
as follows — thirty-nine county members, thirty-one
borough members, and two university members. A
Scottish Bill for Burgh Reform was passed in 1834.

After the passing of the Reform Bill of 1832, Scot-
land became so deeply absorbed in ecclesiastical con-
troversy that for many years political questions, except
in so far as the Church was concerned, occupied quite a
secondary place. The Church question is dealt with
in another chapter. In other respects the political
interests and the party distinctions of England and of
Scotland have gradually become more and more alike.

CHAPTER VIII

SOCIAL LIFE

The period immediately preceding the union was one of
misfortune and disaster for Scotland. To begin with,
the country was exhausted by the long civil war which
began with the signing of the National Covenant and
ended only with the Massacre of Glencoe in 1692. To
add to the distress of the nation this was followed by
seven consecutive years (1696 - 1703) of blight and
famine, which were known among the whigs as the
" hungry years," but which the Jacobites called " King
Willie's years," and which they believed to have been
sent upon the land as a judgment for the banishment of
their lawful king. During these years there were no
harvests gathered, and there was dire scarcity of food
for man and beast. Cattle and sheep perished by the
thousand, and the mortality among the people in some
places was so great that they could not bury their dead.
Whole villages disappeared in ruins and in many parishes
the population was reduced by at least a half. The
population of the country at that time was about one
million, and it was calculated towards the close of those
dark and hungry years that there were more than two
hundred thousand beggars and vagabonds wandering
over the land, many of them a pest and a terror to the
whole community. Beyond the bitter struggle to pro-
vide for the barest necessities of life there were no

10^

106 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

industries carried on, and as the whole currency of the
realm amounted to no more than an average of ten
shillings a head of the population, there was evidently no
reserve of wealth in the country to face so many years
of dearth and destitution.

Such then were the untoward and inauspicious cir-
cumstances in which the negotiations for union with
England were commenced and carried through to a
successful issue. With the Treaty of Union a new era
dawned upon the country, and though the benefits of
that measure came at first but slowly, yet the energy
and intelligence of the people began at once to be
devoted to industry, commerce, and learning, with the
result that the social progress of Scotland during the
eighteenth century stands forth as one of the most
remarkable and instructive chapters of modern history.

The poverty of the country at this time was reflected
in its appearance, which was bleak and desolate.
Except in some parts of the Highlands, such as Strath-
spey, the ancient forests had entirely disappeared, and
the country, except occasionally in a churchyard or
round a nobleman's mansion, was entirely treeless.
The arable land consisted of scattered patches on the
hill sides, because the low-lying lands, which are now
so well cultivated and so fertile, were then usually too
wet and marshy for cultivation, so that to a very large
extent the country was a dismal wilderness of heather-
clad moor and mountain. Here and there might be
seen the massive castellated mansion of some baron or
great chief, but most of the houses of country gentle-
men were homely dwellings of two stories with corbel-
stepped gables, usually built in some sheltered corner
with a southern aspect, and often surrounded with trees,

SOCIAL LIFE 107

especially as the century advanced and tree planting
became common. The houses of the common people
consisted of mere hovels built of turf or of dry stones
with the holes in the wall stuffed with moss to keep the
wind and the cold out. The peat fire was on the centre
of the floor and the smoke escaped by a hole in the roof.
At night the cattle, when they were only few, were tied
at one end of the house, while the people slept on heather
beds on the floor at the other end, with their feet
turned, in winter, towards the fire to keep them warm.
The roof of the house was often so low that a man could
not stand upright under it. Only the better class of
farmers had two rooms in their houses, which were
otherwise little better than the huts of their herds and
ploughmen. The usual thatch was heather or brackens,
for the straw was all required to feed the cattle. The
constant exposure to the weather outside and the peat
smoke inside, together with the hardness of their lot,
gave the people a dark and withered appearance and
made them look old before their time, but, in spite of
appearances, they were, as a rule, vigorous and healthy
both in mind and in body, and capable, when occasion
required, of mental effort as well as of physical labour.

The clothing of the common people was of the plainest
and coarsest description. The men wore coarse home-
spun of uncoloured wool called hodden-grey, which,
however, was sometimes dyed blue, and this was made
into garments by tailors who travelled from house to
house wherever their services might be required. The
women wore short petticoats of the same material, with
shawls of bright colour or tartan over their heads or
shoulders. Shirts were made of woollen cloth or coarse
linen and were changed as a rule only twice a year, at

108 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

Whit Sunday and at Martinmas, and both men and
women frequently went barefoot. The men invariably
wore the blue bonnet, which in shape was much the
same as what is now better known as the " tam-o'-
shanter." A black bonnet was a sign of dignity and
higher rank and was sometimes worn by the better-class
farmers and the smaller lairds, who were called " bonnet
lairds." The ministers and the more important lairds
were the only people who wore the three-cornered hat
of the period, though, in the towns, bailies and even
schoolmasters occasionally aspired to that dignity.
The laird often wore the same homely homespun as his
people, but gentlefolks usually had gay garments which
were donned on the occasion of a marriage or a baptism
or during a visit to Edinburgh, and as fashions did not
change so rapidly then as now a young lady might
appear, without any sense of unfitness, in a silk gown
which had once belonged to her mother or even to her
grandmother. It was not possible in those days to
spend much money on dress, for a rent-roll of £500 was
considered great wealth, and many a man of rank and
high lineage had to maintain his state on less than £100,
which was paid him partly in kind — so many sheep,
poultry, eggs, and bolls of oats and barley, etc.

In the early part of the eighteenth century High-
landers wore the belted plaid, which was a piece of cloth
some yards in length and which served as a blanket at
night. One end of it was adjusted in plaits round the
thighs and loins and held in position by a belt, while the
other was spread over the upper part of the person, and
fastened together in front by means of a brooch or pin.
Beneath this was sometimes worn the trews or tight-
fitting trousers, which were finished off below in hosen

SOCIAL LIFE 109

or stockings, all made but of the same piece of cloth.
Shoes, when worn, were often made of untanned hides.
Gentlemen wore plaids of finely worked tartan, the
making of which required ingenuity and skill. The
women dressed much the same as in the Lowlands,
except that the use of tartan appears to have been more
common among them. The garments or plaids of the
common people were made of coarse cloth either of the
natural colour of the wool or of a reddish-brown or
russet colour produced from the cudbear plant, a lichen
which grows abundantly on the rocks in the Highlands,
and which in Scotland is sometimes called crottle. A
reference to early pictures of Highlanders, such as may
be found in Burt's Letters from the North of Scotland,
shows that the Highland dress in its present form is of
comparatively recent origin. The change from the
belted plaid to the modern kilt appears to have begun
about the time that Wade was making his roads in the
Highlands, and is said to have been the invention of an
Englishman, an iron-worker in Glengarry, of the name
Thomas Rawlinson, who cut off the part of the plaid
worn round the loins, fixed the plaits by stitching, and so
produced the philabeg or modern kilt. This new form
of garment was found to be so much more convenient,
especially for workmen, that the use of it soon became
general. By the commencement of the nineteenth
century the kilt had largely given place, especially
among the common people, to ordinary garments of the
coarse blue cloth and sometimes of the hodden-grey of
the Lowlands.

At meals the farmer, his family, and his servants sat
round the same table, such as it might chance to be, and
partook of the same food out of the same common dish.

no SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

Each man had his own horn spoon, which he carried
with him wherever he went. Knives and forks were
unknown, and on the rare occasions that meat found its
way to his table the goodman of the house cut it up
with his pocket-knife and divided it among his house-
hold. The staple diet consisted of porridge, oat or
barley cakes, cabbage, milk, and ale. Oatmeal, how-
ever, was often considered a luxury, barley-meal being
much more common. There were three meals a day
when people could afford it.

During the long winter evenings the women were busy
spinning or sewing, while the men were making some-
thing which might be useful in their everyday occupa-
tion, such as a straw horse collar, or a flail, or perhaps
cobbling old shoes. The light was supplied by burning
chips of resinous pine roots found in the peat moss, or
perhaps only by the fitful gleams of the peat fire. In
spite of what might seem their hard and untoward cir-
cumstances the people were generally satisfied with
their lot, for they knew no other, and in the winter
evenings there was often a good deal of merry-making
— piping, fiddling, and dancing, and tales and songs,
especially at the social gatherings called " rockings,"
which were held perhaps in a barn, when the company
was large, and to which on fine moonlight nights young
men and women gathered from the whole neighbour-
hood. The women brought their sewing or knitting or
even their spinning with them, so that their household
duties might not be neglected, while the young men
entertained them with song and other forms of merri-
ment. These meetings were so called from the " rock "
or distaff used by the women in spinning. The distaff
and spindle began to give way to the spinning-wheel

SOCIAL LIFE in

about 1730, but the meetings still continued under the
old name and were common in the days of Burns.

All family events, such as baptisms, weddings, and
funerals, were made occasions of social gatherings, and
sometimes of drunkenness and boisterous mirth. This
was specially the case at " penny bridals," as weddings
were called when the neighbours contributed money —
usually a penny Scots each — or food and drink to pro-
vide a feast for some poor couple. Farmers and even
lairds sent their contributions, and the penny bridal
usually became the excuse for a large gathering at
which dancing, drunkenness, and sensuality were often
carried to a degrading extreme. The Church, with
good reason, endeavoured to suppress these gatherings,
but mixed dancing was one of the great delights of the
common people, and the penny bridal, with its dancing
and its excesses, continued in defiance of ecclesiastical
censure.

Funerals also were made an excuse for feasting and
drinking, and it sometimes happened that a drunken
funeral party arrived at the churchyard to find that the
coffin had been left at the house or lost on the way.
The funeral of a laird or chief was a great event, to
which people flocked from far and near, beggars and
vagrants included, and as all had to be liberally sup-
plied with food, drink, and tobacco the expense was
frequently so great as to leave a considerable burden on
the estate of the deceased. The poorest and meanest
men were anxious to leave enough money to provide
.for some entertainment at their funeral. A man some-
times had his coffin made years before he died, while
women spun and prepared their own winding sheets,
which were kept with care until required. In the

ii2 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

terrible poverty which followed the hungry years the
parish frequently provided for public use a coffin with a
movable bottom through which the body was dropped
into the grave, while the coffin was reserved for further
use.

A great event in the rustic life of Scotland in the
eighteenth century was the celebration of the Holy
Communion, which was held as a rule once a year,
usually in June or July. On these occasions there was
always a large gathering of people, but when the minister
was famous as a preacher people flocked to hear him
from all the neighbouring parishes from distances of
forty or fifty miles, until the parish could no longer pro-
vide accommodation for them, and they had to sleep in
sheds, barns, on the floor of the church, or even in the
open air. The services began on Thursday and con-
tinued until Monday, and as country parishioners were
as a rule poor people, the feeding of so large a multitude
for so many days was often such a serious problem that
ministers sometimes had to put off the communion
year after year, because the resources of the parish could
not bear so great a strain. When the concourse of
people was greater than the church could accommodate,
as was usually the case, the services were held in the
open air and the minister preached from a wooden tent
erected for the purpose. The more evangelical among
the people, especially in the south-west country, took
great delight in these open-air services, because they
helped to keep alive the memory of the heroic days of
the Covenanters and their conventicles. Round about,
the tent was gathered a densely packed crowd of eager
listeners, while on the distant fringe men and women
lounged and talked or lay down and slept at their ease

FRANCIS, LORD JEFFREY.

SOCIAL LIFE 113

and frequently adjourned to the nearest inn, so that
the gathering was not without its ugly features, and
Burns's description of the " Holy Fair " is not alto-
gether an exaggeration. As a rule, however, these
gatherings were regarded with solemnity by many mem-
bers of all classes of the community, from the laird in
his laced three-cornered hat and the farmer in his home-
spun hodden-grey down to the poor and even the
beggars, who came from near and far for spiritual re-
freshing as well as for a share of the alms that were
usually distributed at the close of Monday's services.
With the rise of Dissent about the middle of the century,
and the breaking up of the community into rival
religious sects, the attendance at communion services
began to fall off, and as the moderate party at the same
time discouraged such gatherings their popularity
gradually began to decline. But they were evidently
popular among the evangelicals of the south-west in
the time of Robert Burns, and have been kept up to
some extent more especially in the Highlands until
the present day.

The Sabbatarianism of Scotland has long been pro-
verbial, and never was the observance of Sunday
enforced more strictly in any community than among
the Presbyterians of Scotland during the first half of
the eighteenth century. It was not left to a man's own
choice to attend church or not as he pleased. Atten-
dance was compulsory. Elders patrolled the parish on
Sunday, prying into alehouses and private dwellings,
and those who were found strolling in the fields or idling
at home were either dragged to church or reported to
the kirk session to be admonished and perhaps fined.
In towns the magistrates were always ready to assist

H

H4 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

in this work and sometimes appointed men to help the
elders in their search for delinquents. It occasionally
happened that these spies — for spies they certainly were
— not only took bribes to remain silent, but even levied
blackmail by threatening to bring false charges against
their innocent victims. In Glasgow, which was then
the stronghold of the -more extreme forms of Presby-
terianism, the observance of Sunday was enforced with
a rigour that must have been grievous to bear, but as
the moderate party, with their more practical teaching
and more Christian tolerance, began to rise into promin-
ence and influence much of this superstitious tyranny
came to an end, while Sunday happily still continued to
be religiously observed as a day of rest and worship.

In the midst of the strictest orthodoxy and in spite
of the most regular church attendance gross super-
stition was very prevalent. The common people had
the most implicit faith in the efficacy of charms and
incantations, which were the remedies usually resorted
to in case of an attack of toothache, a sprained ankle, or
any other minor common ailment. For some ailments,
and especially for epileptic or any other kind of fits, it
was a common thing to go on a pilgrimage to some
sacred well. Omens were eagerly watched for at the
beginning of every undertaking and implicitly believed
in, and there were lucky and unlucky days which were
carefully observed. It was unlucky for a farmer to
begin his spring ploughing before Candlemas (February
2). It was unlucky to glean the cornfield too carefully
because God might require some stray grains in fulfil-
ment of his promise to feed the fowls of the air. It was
unlucky to weed a field too clean because the earth had
to yield weeds as the result of Adam's fall. Pagan rites

SOCIAL LIFE 115

and ceremonies preserved from remote antiquity were
practised at certain seasons, such as Hollowmas or
Hallowe'en (October 31) and Beltane (May 1), in the
confident belief that they could avert misfortune and
bring luck and prosperity. If a child did not thrive, it
was believed to be because it came under the influence
of an evil eye, or perhaps because it was a fairy change-
ling, and due rites had to be performed to undo the evil
or to bring the real child back again. Many of the ills
and misfortunes of life were believed to be the work of
witches, and long after 1736, when the law for burning
witches was abolished, solitary old women of unpre-
possessing appearance were eyed askance and with awe,
or treated with obsequious kindness in order to avert
their malice. When in spite of kindness a reputed witch
was suspected of evil doings, she was sometimes seized
by her angry victims, who drew her blood " above the
breath " by cutting on her forehead the sign of the cross,
which was believed to put an end for ever to her
malignant powers. Against these superstitions the
Church fought in vain. The practice of them, however,
was carefully concealed from the ministers and elders
for fear of the admonitions and fines of the kirk session,
but the practice was continued all the same, for old
inherited beliefs die hard among the ignorant, and in
outlying parts of the country some of these super-
stitions probably linger still. As for witchcraft, even
ministers themselves, especially the evangelicals and
the seceders, believed in it, and denounced their more
enlightened and humane brethren of the moderate party,
who looked upon it as a superstition and supported the
abolition of the Act for burning witches.

In spite of poverty and superstition there was a sym-

n6 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

pathetic kindliness about the social life of Scotland in
those times. Servants lived on terms of the utmost
familiarity with the family of their master, and were
ready to enter into every conversation with advice or
comment as they thought fit. The nobleman or laird
lived much at home among his own people, usually clad
like themselves in plain homespun cloth, and talking
their homely speech, broad Scots or Gaelic as the case
might be. He had power of life and death over all
living on his estates, and though that power was some-
times grievously abused, yet the abuse was exceptional,
and as a rule he was anxious for the well-being of his
people and ever ready to share in their joys and in their
sorrows. An instance of this sympathy is to be found
in a law observed in the hungry years, which exempted
a starving man from being charged with theft for steal-
ing food when he had no other means of obtaining any.
In other ways, too, the stern and merciless laws of
those days were more humane in Scotland than in Eng-
land. About the middle of the century there were more
than one hundred and sixty crimes in English law which
were punishable by death and this number was increased
before the end of the century. In Scotland many of
these offences were punishable only by imprisonment or
flogging. Besides, the judges possessed discretionary
powers and might modify their sentences according to
circumstances, whereas in England every crime had its
assigned penalty and extenuating circumstances could
not be taken into account. A common thief in Scotland
was liable to be hanged only after his third offence and
even then the judge might let him off with a flogging, or
a reputed witch legally liable to a sentence of burning
might be let off with banishment from the parish.

SOCIAL LIFE 117

But even this was a severe sentence, for by the rules of
the kirk session no stranger was allowed to settle in a
parish unless he could produce a certificate from the
session of his last parish. Thus the unfortunate out-
law was driven from place to place a homeless vagrant,
unless he could manage to lose his identity among the
population of one of the larger towns. It sometimes
happened that the hereditary judge turned his powers
to wicked but profitable account by threatening a
prisoner with sentence of death and then offering him
the option of being sold as a slave to the American
plantations. Needless to say the offer was accepted and
the unjust judge was paid a good price for his victim.

The hereditary jurisdictions were abolished in 1748.
After that, the relations of the baron or chief with his
people quickly underwent a change. From being the
protector and judge of his people, on whose prosperity
and goodwill his own influence and power mainly
depended, he gradually lapsed into a mere landlord
whose main interest was to get out of them as much
rent as possible, but yet, in spite of some disadvantages,
it cannot be denied that the change was for the better.
On the whole Scotland was singularly free from crime
in those days. The prisons, wretched as they were,
were certainly not worse than in England and were
rarely crowded. When John Howard visited Scotland
in 1775 he was struck by the small number of prisoners.
Hangings were comparatively rare, and during the
latter part of the century there were not more than
about half a dozen a year for the whole of the kingdom,
whereas in England it was not an uncommon thing for
thirty or forty persons to be sentenced to death at one
assize. As the century passed many old punishments,

n8 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

such as the pillory, carving of ears, fines for Sabbath -
breaking, and various others, fell more and more into
abeyance and finally dropped out of use.

The parochial authority in all things was the kirk
session, that is, the minister and his elders, and they had
many duties to attend to. They had to watch over the
morals and conduct of the people, to enforce attendance
at church, to punish Sabbath-breakers and all other
petty offenders, to keep the school in repair, and to look
after the poor. For the relief of the poor there was no
compulsory rate as in England, and although there was
an old Act of the Scottish Parliament, passed in 1672,
authorising such a rate, it was rarely put in force even
in Edinburgh and Glasgow until about 1770, so that as
a rule the only money at the disposal of the kirk session
were the fines exacted from offenders and the church
collections. These collections were, invariably small,
and all the base and foreign coins that came into the
parish found their way into them, so that the relief
which the kirk session was able to afford was some-
times of a meagre nature. But the people were as a
rule kindly disposed towards the unfortunate, and the
doles of the kirk session were often supplemented by
private charity, at weddings, funerals, and on various
other occasions. Sometimes a licence was granted to
certain deserving persons to beg throughout the parish.
These licensed beggars were called " blue gowns " or
" gaberlunzies," and with their gossip and news formed
quite a feature of the rustic life of Scotland during the
first half of the eighteenth century. With the progress
of agriculture, after the middle of the century, the
support of the rustic poor became a less serious question,
but, at the same time, new difficulties were coming into

SOCIAL LIFE 119

existence, as the result of the crowding of loafers and
idlers into the large towns, and it was these new diffi-
culties that eventually made it necessary for the authori-
ties to fall back upon their power to levy a poor rate.
The chief Act by which the relief of the poor is now
administered in Scotland was passed in 1845.

The best society in Scotland was naturally to be found
in Edinburgh, where every nobleman had his town
house and where the aristocracy of the land crowded
with their families during the session of the old Scottish
Parliament. After the Treaty of Union, however, the
social importance and brilliancy of Edinburgh began to
decline and the nobility resorted more and more to
London. Nevertheless, it still continued to be the
scene of a great display of style and fashion, and the
nobles, divines, professors, judges, and literary men who
were to be met there during the second half of the
century formed as interesting and intellectual a society
as could be found in any capital in Europe. As the old
town of Edinburgh was hemmed in by walls which had
been built^as far back as the early part of the sixteenth
century, the gradual increase of population at length
caused an overcrowding. Houses were built up to the
enormous height of ten or twelve stories, and families of
all social grades might be found living in the various
flats of the same building, all using the same common
stairs. The very poorest lived in the cellars beneath,
workmen and mechanics in the garrets above, with
perhaps a noble lord, a judge, a minister, or physician
in some of the flats between. The accommodation
within was always limited, and a man of any social pre-
tensions usually had his favourite tavern where he could
make appointments, not only for social purposes, but

120 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

for the transaction of business as well. There physi-
cians saw their patients and the lawyers met their
clients. There congenial friends met to pass the even-
ing in pleasant conviviality until the beat of the town
guard drum at ten o'clock reminded them that the time
had arrived for all respectable citizens to retire to their
homes.

The streets were narrow and dirty, but usually full of
animation and life. The people were all known to each
other and a delightful familiarity existed between all
ranks and classes. When the sweep who lived in the
cellar below met the nobleman who lived in one of the
flats above they exchanged greetings ; a judge might be
seen questioning a caddie for interesting gossip to retail
to his wife ; and the beggar was ready with an outspoken
criticism on the last sermon preached by the minister
from whom he was receiving an alms in the street.

In the morning people were early astir and shops were
open by seven o'clock. At eight o'clock the citizens sat
down to a substantial meat breakfast with ale or perhaps
sack or claret for drink. The poor breakfasted when
and how they could. When the bells of St. Giles rang
at half-past eleven the citizens left their shops and
offices for their favourite taverns, where they refreshed
themselves with a nip of brandy or a drink of ale. The
dinner hour was between one and two, but became later
as the century advanced. In the afternoon lords,
lawyers, ministers, and physicians, in short all who could
afford the time, congregated at the Cross, by St. Giles,
for gossip and social converse, while the ladies met in
each other's houses and at four o'clock drank ale or
claret, until between 1720 and 1730, when it became the
fashion to drink tea. Ladies as well as gentlemen took

SOCIAL LIFE 121

snuff. About eight o'clock they sat down to a sump-
tuous supper, followed, on every excuse, by copious
libations until a late hour of the night, or perhaps an
early hour in the morning.

During the early years of the century the Church
frowned sternly on all this gaiety and pleasure. Never-
theless, those who could afford to enjoy themselves
continued to do so, and as the moderate party rose into
prominence the vigilance and censorship of the Church
in the matter of legitimate amusement were somewhat
relaxed. In 1736 Allan Ramsay, the poet, attempted
to open a theatre, but clergy and magistrates combined
against him and the theatre had to be closed. Never-
theless, we read of many dramatic entertainments given
from time to time, including the performance in 1756
of Home's tragedy of Douglas, when some ministers
and elders shocked the community by going to see it.
At length in 1764 a theatre was duly licensed and
became one of the recognised institutions of the city.

But the interests and activities of the better classes
were shown in other ways than amusements and
pleasures. They were intelligent and patriotic, and
they were anxious by all possible means to promote the
welfare and interests of their country. In 1754 Allan
Ramsay, the younger, founded the Select Society for
the Encouragement of Art, Science, and Literature,
which soon included all the leading men of Edinburgh
in its membership. A few years afterwards they
formed themselves into a " Society for Promoting the
Reading and Speaking of the English Language," and
in 1761 they employed for their guide and instructor,
somewhat inconsistently however, an Irish actor and
teacher of elocution, Thomas Sheridan, the father of

122 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

the well - known writer, Richard Brinsley Sheridan.
These efforts to acquire the Anglican accent and pro-
nunciation excited the sarcasm of the old - fashioned,
but the " modern mode," as it was sometimes called,
continued to gain ground not only in Edinburgh
but all over the country. The Scots speech was
universally spoken then and until towards the end of
the century by all Scotsmen of whatever rank, but
it was spoken by the better classes with a refinement
which ceased to be cultivated as southern English
gradually became the spoken language of the educated,
and for any trace of which one would listen in vain to-
day in the Canongate or High Street of Edinburgh.
Though David Hume was master of such an admirable
English style in his writings, yet his speech, like that of
most of his literary Edinburgh contemporaries, was
broad Scots. By the end of the century educated
young men of the better class spoke English, differing
from that of the south only in the accent, which was not
unpleasant to English ears.

About 1770 the richer families began to migrate out
of the overcrowded Old Town into larger and more
spacious houses on the north side of the city, where the
New Town was beginning to rise. The North Bridge,
which was finished in 1772, opened up an easy way to
the new suburb, which began after 1780 to grow up
very rapidly, so that by the end of the century the
wealthy and the fashionable had permanently taken up
their abode in it. With this change came other changes
also. Old customs, old ways, and old ideas were passing
away and Edinburgh was gradually becoming what it
is at the present time.

Throughout the whole of the eighteenth century

SOCIAL LIFE 123

Scotland in the midst of her poverty could boast of a
rich variety of social classes and types of character.
There was the Lowland laird, shrewd, practical, and
homely, but dignified withal ; there was the Highland
chief, proud, despotic, but romantic and generous, with
an exterior polish often acquired in France ; there was
the cultured and refined scholar, the learned lawyer,
and the practical man of science ; the enterprising mer-
chant and the expert agriculturist. In religion there
was the broad, tolerant, large-minded, and cultured
moderate; the narrow, fervent, earnest, and mystic
Evangelical; and the Episcopalian, clinging through
poverty and persecution to his own ideals, with a devo-
tion which forms one of the most pleasing features of
Scottish ecclesiastical history. But among all classes,
rich and poor alike, there was one preponderating type,
" strong, rugged, and quick in intellectual effort and
intellectual adaptiveness, tenacious of old habits, self-
centred and reserved in its pride of race, and accustomed
by long habits of endurance to master difficulties and
to force a livelihood out of the most unpromising
materials." x It was this dominant type of character,
asserting itself in all classes of the community, that in
one century raised Scotland out of the depths of ignor-
ance and poverty to a front place in the industry,
commerce, science, and literature of the whole civilised
world.

It was in Glasgow that the commercial and social pro-
gress of the eighteenth century first began. The Treaty
of Union did away with the English laws which pro-
hibited Scotland from trading with . America and the
Indies, and the citizens of Glasgow were not slow
1 Sir Henry Craik, A Century of Scottish History.

124 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

to take advantage of this relief. Before long they
established a great and flourishing trade with America,
and with this increase of trade there came also an in-
crease of wealth and a great and rapid improvement in
the condition of all classes of the community. In other
parts of the country no real progress began until after
the settlement which followed the Battle of Culloden
at the middle of the century. The compensation of
£152,000 paid to the nobles and chiefs for the loss of
their hereditary jurisdiction was employed by them in
improving their estates, and this sum, small though it
was, gave the agriculture of the whole country a fresh
start on new and improved lines. At the same time
men who had made fortunes in India and other places
were returning home and buying estates, on the im-
provement of which they were ready to spend large
sums of money. Much low-lying land was drained and
reclaimed and better houses were built. Sheep farming
began to be better understood and to yield large profits.
In 1751 the Turnpike Road Act was passed, by which a
rate was levied for the making and maintenance of
public roads, and in a few years carts became common
instead of pack saddles and sledges. Trade was thus
facilitated and intercourse between the various parts of
the country began to be more common. Potato culti-
vation was becoming general about 1750, to be followed
by the cultivation of turnips, and the use of these
vegetables had a beneficial effect on the health of the
people.

With all these changes there came a marked improve-
ment in the condition of the people. By 1790 the
houses of the common people were built with chimneys
and glazed windows, and much of the filth and squalor

SOCIAL LIFE 125

of former times had disappeared; their diet became
much better and more varied, and on Sunday both men
and women went to church in becoming and expensive
garments. The surest sign of sound industrial and
commercial progress is to be found in the simultaneous
increase both in the profits of capital and in the wages of
labour. Applying this test to the industrial progress of
Scotland during the second half of the eighteenth
century, we find that rentals increased four, five, and
even eight-fold between 1760 and 1790, the money wages
of labourers was more than doubled during the same
period, and, if the improvement in food, clothing, hous-
ing, and all the amenities of life be taken into account,
the increase of wages was not much less in proportion
than the increase of rentals.

Unfortunately all the changes were not improvements.
With the increase of money and commercial and in-
dustrial prosperity there came also a greater thirst for
gain, more of the utilitarian spirit, more selfishness and
greed, and at the same time there came also a gradual
disappearing of that kindly sympathy which existed
between all classes of the community in the humble and
homely days of old. This was the case more especially
in the Highlands, where the economic relations between
landlords and tenants became so strained that thousands
of the best and most enterprising of the people emigrated
to America. This tide of emigration, which is referred
to elsewhere, appears to have been at its height about
1770. Nevertheless, the Highlands also shared, in
various ways, in the general progress of the nation, and
when we consider the increase of knowledge, the security
of life and property, the improvement in domestic

126 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

comfort, which belonged to the close of the eighteenth
century, and still more to the close of the nineteenth
century, as compared with the turbulent days of old, it
will be no longer possible for us to say " that the former
days were better than these."

CHAPTER IX

INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE

The chief and almost the sole industry of Scotland at
the time of the union was her agriculture which was
carried on under conditions of the rudest and most
primitive description. The low-lying lands, which to-
day form some of the finest arable farms in the world,
such as the Carse of Gowrie, were then mere marshy
wastes, and the cultivated land consisted generally of
small irregular patches on the treeless, windswept hill-
side. As the soil in such a situation was invariably
shallow and poor and the climate ungenial, the crops
frequently failed and years of destitution and famine
were of common occurrence.

The " run-rig " system on which the land was
universally worked was an obstacle both to individual
enterprise and to progress of every kind. The farm
was held in common by a number of tenants, whose
cottages, usually grouped together in one place, formed
what was called a town or township. The fields were
divided into " riggs " or ridges varying in width from
twenty to forty feet, and the whole farm was worked by
the tenants in common, but the land was yearly divided
anew among them in ridges by lot. One portion of
the arable land, which was called the " in -field," was
under constant cultivation until it became so exhausted
that its yield was often not more than two or three times
the quantity of corn sown in it. Another and much

127

128 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

larger portion, which was called the " out-field," was
sown with corn for two or three years in succession and
then allowed to lie fallow for five or six years under
natural grass, on which the sheep, cattle, and horses
belonging to the various tenants grazed together,
watched by a herd who kept them away from the unen-
closed in-field until the harvest was gathered in and they
were allowed to graze over the whole of the farm.

Among the tenants themselves there were constant
quarrellings and misunderstandings. As neither spring
work nor harvest work could go on without the com-
bined help of all, it was sometimes difficult to fix upon a
day for making a beginning, so that valuable time was
thus frequently wasted and the work thrown behind.
If any man attempted any change or innovation he was
looked upon as infringing on the rights of his neighbours,
and, besides, he had little or no inducement to attempt
any improvement on his own account, as he never knew
what ridges might fall to his lot from one year to
another. Individual enterprise found no encourage-
ment under such a system, but the people were well
pleased with it, for the quarrels and feuds which so often
broke out among them were kept within safe limits by
a sense of their own common interest, and they feared
neither eviction nor excessive rent from the landlord,
who thought less of money than of the ties by which his
people were personally bound to him. One advantage
of the " run-rig " system was that it prevented sub-
division of the land.

The soil was usually tilled by means of a huge, un-
wieldy wooden plough with the share and coulter made
of iron. To this clumsy structure was yoked any
number of horses or oxen up to about a dozen, attended

SIR JOHN SINCLAIR. Ba

i INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE 129

by quite a company of men, to hold the plough, to guide
the team, and to urge them by goading, shouting, and
whistling tunes to them. In places where the arable
plots were small and irregular, especially in the High-
lands, the ground was tilled by hand labour with a
particular kind of spade made for the purpose. The
crops consisted of a constant succession of oats or
barley, with perhaps in some places a little flax. The
grain most commonly cultivated were grey oats and the
barley called bere, each the poorest of its kind, but they
were believed to be the only kind of grain that would
grow in the poor soil and unfavourable climate of
Scotland.

The cattle and the sheep were all of a poor and
diminutive breed. During the winter months they were
shut in, in the belief that they could not stand exposure
to the inclemency of the weather, and when fodder ran
short they had to be fed on such makeshifts as were
available, very often on chipped whins which contained
barely enough of nourishment to keep them alive. In
springtime the cattle were bled, in the belief that they
would thrive better for it when turned out to the
pasture, the blood being carefully kept and cooked into
dainty fare for the farmer's household. When the time
came to turn them out they were often so weak that
the neighbours had to be invited to help in lifting them
on their legs and leading them out to the grass. This
was called the " lifting " of the cattle, and though it was
a work that may seem to us now to savour largely of
the painful and pathetic, yet to the Scottish rustic of
old it was an occasion of joy and gladness, for it was a
sign that gloomy winter had passed away and that the
delights of summer were at hand. During the months

i3o SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

of June and July it was customary, especially in the
Highlands, to move the cattle from the lower pastures
to shealings on the upper moorlands. A number of
people went along with the cattle as herds and dairy-
maids, and huts were erected for shelter and sleeping
accommodation. In fine summer weather life under
such circumstances would not be unpleasant, and in
Gaelic song the season of the shealing is often described
as a time of much enjoyment.

The rent of the land was paid chiefly in kind, so
many cattle, so many sheep, so many fowls and eggs, so
much corn, butter, and cheese, which had all to be con-
veyed to the laird's " girnals " or granaries. The
minister also had his granary for storing his teinds or
tithes. The result was often that, while quite destitute
of money, the laird had stores of provisions which he
could not use himself and for which it was not always
possible to find a market. He was therefore glad to
use up a large portion of his substance on profuse and
wasteful hospitality. The tenants had also to give him
so many days' work a year, and as this work was often
claimed in seed time and in harvest, when the tenants
were busy with their own work, it was felt to be a very
real grievance and was sometimes strongly resented.

One of the farmer's chief and most real grievances was
the law with regard to the estate mill. There he had to
take all his grain to be ground and the miller claimed
about a tenth part of it as his own due. This he had to
pay to the miller, on all his grain except what was
reserved for seed, whether he had it ground or not. If
he sold any of his grain unground he was liable to be
prosecuted for defrauding the miller of his due. The
tenants had also to keep the mill and everything con-

INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE 131

nected with it in repair. If the miller was very busy,
or the mill out of repair, or if there was neither water
nor wind to drive it, the farmer's grain might have to
lie there for weeks, perhaps to be destroyed in the end
by vermin, while his household was starving for want
of bread, but in any case the miller always claimed his
own full share. These iniquitous restrictions continued
in many parts of the country until the nineteenth
century. In some places, and especially in the islands
and outlying districts of the Highlands, the quern or
ancient hand-mill continued in use until within living
memory. The corn was cut with sickles, it was threshed
with flails, and winnowed by hand riddles in the open
air, generally on a slight eminence where the wind blew
steadily, and which was usually known as a " shilling
hill."

It was not until about the middle of the century that
these conditions began to undergo change and improve-
ment, as a result of the general progress of the age.
Most improvements were at first opposed by the farmers
themselves, as was the case when fanners were intro-
duced from Holland into East Lothian in 1710. Some
religious extremists objected to the use of artificially
produced wind, which they called devil's wind, and it
was many years before fanners came into general use.
In 17 1 9 an Act was passed ordering every able-bodied
man in every district to give six days' work a year to the
making and improving of roads, but it was ignored by
the people and the roads remained in their primitive
condition until 175 1, when the Turnpike Road Act
assessed both proprietors and farmers for the making
and maintaining of proper roads in all parts of the
country.

i32 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

In the early part of the century farms and fields were
entirely without any kind of enclosure. It was about
1715 that enterprising lairds first began to enclose their
lands, but their efforts were met with persistent opposi-
tion by the farmers, who objected to have their cattle
shut in to their own ground, and feared a raising of the
rent, and by the labourers who were afraid of losing
their occupation as herds. In 1725 the people of Gallo-
way rose in such force to destroy all enclosures that the
military had to be employed to suppress them, and the
popular feeling throughout the whole country was felt
to be so strong against these innovations that they
had practically to be discontinued for a number of
years.

Early in the century some lairds began to plant trees
on their estates, and by the middle of the century tree-
planting had become common throughout the whole
of Scotland. The farmers and the common people ob-
jected to trees as much as they did to enclosures. The
roots were supposed to impoverish the soil, the branches
intercepted the light and nourishing warmth of the sun,
and harboured birds to devour the corn. Thus it fre-
quently happened that, in their prejudiced dislike of
trees and hedges, the people of a district assembled
under cover of the darkness of night and destroyed
a whole plantation on which the laird had spent so
much money and so many years of anxious care and
watchfulness. Nevertheless the lairds continued their
tree-planting with praiseworthy perseverance, and by
degrees all opposition ceased as farmers began to realise
the beneficial effects of trees upon soil and climate alike.
Potato and turnip cultivation encountered a similar
opposition when first attempted, but the former became

INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE 133

general between 1740 and 1750 and the latter at a some-
what later date.

The settlement which followed the Battle of Culloden
gave the farmer a "greater sense of security in various
ways and so had the effect of stimulating his industry,
while the nobles, as already stated, devoted the money
received as compensation for the loss of their hereditary
jurisdiction to the development of their estates and
the encouragement of agriculture. In their eagerness
to teach the people how to make the best use of the soil
they brought ploughmen from Enlgand to instruct
them in English ways of cultivation, and although
methods which proved eminently successful in the more
genial climate of the south of England did not always
succeed in Scotland, yet the results, on the whole, were
highly satisfactory, for the Scottish farmers not only
learned what the English ploughman was able to teach
them, but so greatly improved on it that before the
end of the century they in their turn were being invited
to teach English farmers the superior husbandry of
Scotland.

As far back as 1727 Duncan Forbes of Culloden let
lands belonging to the Duke of Argyll to crofters on
leases of nineteen years. Leases were occasionally
granted by other proprietors after the middle of the
century, and in 1770 an Act was passed by the Lord
Advocate, Sir James Montgomery, known as the Mont-
gomery Act, which permitted the owner of an entailed
estate to grant leases of farms for nineteen years, and
building leases for ninety-nine years, and to burden the
estate with the cost of building, enclosing, draining,
planting, and other permanent improvements. The
improved condition in which this Act placed the

134 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

relations between farmer and laird was not the least
important cause of the remarkable progress made by
Scottish agriculture during the last quarter of the
century. Further legislation to amend the law of
entail followed from time to time, the last being in 1882,
and the owner of an entailed estate can now burden it
with provisions for his widow and younger children and
disentail it by making certain payments to his next heir.
Meantime great improvement was being made in
agricultural machinery. In 1750 John Small of Dal-
keith invented the swing plough requiring only two
horses to pull it and one man to manage it. This is
practically the form of plough that has been used ever
since. A rude threshing mill was invented by Michael
Menzies in Edinburgh about 1732, but it did not come
into use, and it was not until 1787 that Andrew Meikle,
a millwright near Dunbar, succeeded, after many ex-
periments, in completing a satisfactory machine, which
was soon adopted by the larger farmers all over the
country. During the earlier part of the nineteenth
century the sickle or reaping-hook gave place in most
parts of the country to the scythe, which in its turn
gave place to the reaping machine, an early form of
which was invented in 1827 by the Rev. Patrick Bell,
afterwards minister of Carmylie, Forfarshire. Reaping
machines, however, did not come much into use before
the middle of the century. Thus by the beginning of
the nineteenth century the enterprise, perseverance,
and skill of the Scottish lairds and farmers had raised
the agriculture of their country to as high a degree of
perfection as could be found in any part of the world.
It is but fair to add, however, that all improvements in
agriculture were commenced in the first instance by the

INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE 135

proprietors, and never by the tenants, who invariably
opposed every change forced upon them, until time
proved the wisdom and profitableness of it. The
miserable run-rig system could have been abolished only
by the strong authority of ownership.

During the first half of the eighteenth century the
chief industry of the Highlands was the rearing of black
cattle, for which there was a large demand in England,
and at the yearly fair which was held at Crieff thousands
were bought, often at a very poor price, by English
dealers. But about the middle of the century it was
found that sheep farming would pay better, and land-
lords began between 1760 and 1780 to clear the smaller
tenants away in order to form large sheep farms, which
by 1815 had become universal all over the Highlands.
These farms were frequently taken by speculators from
the south of Scotland. The breed of sheep at the same
time was greatly improved and sheep farming became a
flourishing industry. The value of land soon increased
many-fold ; rents rose and so also did wages. Accord-
ing to Sir John Sinclair of Ulbster, in Caithness, who did
more than perhaps any other man of his generation
to develop the resources of the Highlands and to
stimulate the industry of the people, the yearly value
of the produce exported from the Highlands before the
introduction of sheep farming was only about £300,000.
Before long the export of mutton alone was valued at
£600,000, while that of wool was valued at £900,000,
which when manufactured represented a value of about
£3,000,000. But this increase of prosperity and wealth
was not without its corresponding disadvantages. The
smaller tenants and crofters were being driven out of
their old homes, and so bitterly were these " clearances "

136 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

felt and resented that in 1792 the people of the east
side of Ross-shire assembled together to drive the sheep
out of the county, and soldiers from Fort George had to
be employed to disperse them. In the south the people
usually flocked with their families into the towns where
growing manufactures supplied work, but in the High-
lands they migrated in large numbers to America. The
alarm caused by this exodus of the population from the
Highlands has been already referred to.

The peace after the Battle of Waterloo was followed
by a depression in sheep farming, and in the second
quarter of the century sheep farms began to be con-
verted into deer forests. It is not right, however, to
suppose that there were no deer forests in the High-
lands before then. Deer forests had always been
common in the Highlands and there were many of them
even when sheep farming was at its height, but about
this time the number was largely increased, not only
because of the decline in sheep farming, but also because
of the enormous rent which wealthy noblemen were
ready to pay for them. Most of the Highland moors
and mountains have now been converted into deer
forests, and though opinions may, and do, differ keenly
as to the desirableness of these changes, yet it cannot be
denied that the deer forests bring a large amount of
money into the Highlands, where there are extensive
tracts of waste mountain and moorland unfit for any
other purpose.

At the commencement of the nineteenth century
many of the people of the west coast and the Hebrides
were profitably employed in manufacturing kelp from
seaweed, the soda obtained from kelp being then largely
used in soap-making. But the repeal of the salt tax in

INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE 137

1823 made it possible to obtain soda much more cheaply
from salt, and so the kelp industry was ruined. While
this industry flourished agriculture and fishing were
neglected and emigration was discouraged. The failure
of it was followed in the west Highlands and in the
Hebrides by a period of great distress, which culminated
after the failure of the potato crop of 1846 in a great
famine. Landlords and people alike were now greatly
impoverished. Many Highland estates came into the
market, and emigration was forced upon the people in
order once more to prepare larger holdings for Lowland
and English farmers who brought capital and improved
methods into the country.

In dealing with the state of things now prevailing in
the Highlands no doubt many serious mistakes were
made, largely as the result of ignorance of economic
laws. The decay of the feudal system was followed
everywhere all over Europe by serious mistakes on the
part of those in authority, with grievous suffering on the
part of the people, and there came no greater evils upon
the Highlands than had come at an earlier date upon
the Lowlands and at a still earlier date on England, but
in the Lowlands and in England those evils have long
been forgotten in the eager desire of practical men to
keep abreast of modern ideas and of the times in which
they lived. In the Highlands, however, the feudal
system practically lingered until the defeat of the clans
at Culloden. The evils following the change are there-
fore of more recent date, but the sooner they are for-
gotten the better for the well-being and happiness of
the people. No good purpose can be served by a
morbid brooding over the mistakes and misfortunes of
the past. No nation, no people, ever become great by
harping on their grievances.

138 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

The conditions on which the smaller holdings are
occupied in the Highlands were made somewhat more
favourable to the tenants by the Crofters Act of 1886,
the effects of which can already be seen in the better
houses which are being built in every crofter district, as
well as in the improving amenities of all crofter sur-
roundings.

Apart from her agriculture the other industries of
Scotland at the time of the union were of very little
importance. Glasgow was a small town of less than
thirteen thousand inhabitants with a meagre trade in
salt fish, coarse woollen cloth, and ropes. Aberdeen,
Stirling, and Musselburgh produced woollen fabrics and
Dunfermline manufactured linen. Inverness was a
collection of mere huts, where a little local trade was
done at fairs. The whole foreign trade of the country
was carried on by means of about ninety small vessels,
which had to be built abroad as there was no timber to
be had at home. Great efforts were made to foster and
develop the woollen industry from the beginnings
which already existed. There was a law forbidding the
exportation of unmanufactured wool, and one of the last
acts of the Scottish Parliament was a law requiring all
bodies to be buried in a winding sheet of woollen cloth ;
but the first thing to give a stimulus to the industry and
trade of the country was the free opening of the English
and colonial markets to Scottish enterprise by the Act
of Union. With these new facilities for obtaining a
market, and as a result of the easy supply of excellent
wool obtained from the Cheviot sheep of the south-
eastern counties, the woollen industry soon became
important in the valley of the Tweed. The well-known
cloth called " tweed " was not so named, however, after

INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE 139

the river. Its original name was tweel, and it is said
to have been first called tweed as the result of a clerical
error, a name which has somewhat appropriately been
retained.

Linen manufacture was commenced in Glasgow about
1725, and a year or two afterwards some of the leading
nobles and merchants of the country formed themselves
into a society for promoting and fostering all branches
of the linen trade. In a few years, however, they began
to restrict their business to lending money for the pro-
motion of manufacture and commerce, and in 1747 they
formed themselves into the British Linen Banking
Company. The Bank of Scotland was founded in 1695
and was afterwards patronised more especially by the
whigs, while the Royal Bank, founded in 1727 by the
holders of the equivalent stock, was favoured by the
tories. The great London bank known as Coutts's
was founded first in Edinburgh, about the same time as
the Royal Bank, by John Coutts & Co., merchants,
who in addition to their mercantile business lent money
and discounted bills. Branch banks began to be opened
in the country about 1760. It was also about 1725 that
Mrs. Shaw, of Bargarran in Renfrewshire, and her
daughters started the manufacture of sewing thread in
Paisley, which soon became a great and important
industry. About the same time another lady, Mrs.
Henry Fletcher, set up the manufacture of fine Holland
linen on her husband's farm in East Lothian. Thus
the manufacture of linen soon became an important
national industry and raw material had to be imported
from the Baltic, as the home farmers were no longer
able to produce a supply sufficient for the increasing
demand.

140 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

But the national progress was not limited to these
great industries. Articles which formerly had to be
imported from abroad, such as coaches, fine furniture,
and various articles of luxury, were now manufactured
at home. Home resources also, such as slate and granite
quarries, began to be worked, and between 1740 and 1780
the latter was coming into use as a house building
material in Aberdeen. About 1760 carpets were com-
ing into use, and at Kilmarnock the manufacture of
that article began to take the place of that of blue
bonnets.

In 1776 David Dale, in company with Sir Richard
Arkwright, whose spinning frame was used, began the
manufacture of cotton in Lanark, an industry which in
a few years assumed gigantic proportions in Lanark-
shire and the neighbouring counties, and created such
a demand for workmen that the wages of labour rose all
over the country.

In 1760 the Carron Iron Works, near Falkirk, were
founded, which also proved the starting point of another
great national industry, and became famous for the
manufacture of a kind of ordnance called " Carronades."
One of the most far-reaching events of the eighteenth
century in its influence on the industry and commerce
of the world was the series of improvements in the
steam engine commenced by James Watt in 1769. As
a result of these improvements the use of the steam
engine in factories and for heavy traction became more
and more general, and in 1812 the first British passenger
steamboat was launched on the Clyde by Henry Bell.
It was called the Comet and plied between Glasgow and
Greenock. Among other Scottish inventions that
helped to develop the iron industry may be mentioned

INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE 141

the hot-blast furnace invented by John Beaumont
Neilson about 1828 and the steam hammer invented by
James Nasmyth about 1838.

To facilitate trade between Edinburgh and Glasgow
the Forth and Clyde Canal was commenced in 1768 and
opened in 1778. The Monkland branch of it was not
completed until 1790. The Crinan Canal in Argyllshire
was made between 1793 and 1801, and the Caledonian
Canal was commenced in 1803 and completed in 1822
by the great engineer Thomas Telford, who about the
same period constructed throughout Scotland more
than a thousand miles of road and twelve hundred
bridges, besides harbours, churches, manses, etc. Wade's
roads were made largely with a view to military re-
quirements and they connected only a few of the more
important places, but Telford's roads established com-
munication with all parts of the Highlands. To keep
these communications open many bridges were neces-
sary, the more important being the Bridge of Dunkeld
over the Tay, which was finished in 1809 and opened up
the central Highlands, the bridge over the Beauly,
which was finished in 1817 and established communica-
tions between Inverness and the north, a bridge over
the Dee at Ballater, over the Don at Alford, and over
the Spey at Craigellachie. Stage coaches began to run
northwards from Perth to Inverness about 1808, and by
1820 no fewer than forty coaches a week started from
Inverness to all parts of the Highlands. Telford's
works proved of immense benefit to the Highlands, not
only by opening up the country, but by providing
employment for the people, many hundreds of whom
were changed from useless idlers into good and useful
workmen.

142 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

About 1760 a stage coach travelled from Edinburgh
to London once a month and took fifteen days to com-
plete the journey. By 1780 there were fifteen coaches
a week running on the same route and making the
journey in four days. It was not until 1788 that a
stage coach began to run direct from Glasgow to London.
In 1749 a stage coach began to run between Edinburgh
and Glasgow. It travelled twice a week and accom-
plished the journey of forty-six miles in twelve hours.
By the end of the century the number of coaches on
this route was greatly increased and the journey was
accomplished in six hours. On this rate of speed there
was no great improvement until the two cities were
connected by railway in 1842.

The first railway in Scotland was made between
Monklands, in Lanarkshire, and Kirkintilloch, in Dum-
bartonshire, in 1826, the year after the opening of
George Stephenson's railway between Stockton and
Darlington. This was the beginning of the railways of
Scotland, and the progress made during the next few
years was somewhat slow. A railway was made between
Dundee and Newtyle in 1831 and between Arbroath and
Forfar in 1839. The following decade, from 1840 to
1850, saw the foundation of most of the great railway
companies of Scotland, and in the vast work of railway
construction, which formed one of the chief features of
British enterprise and industry about the middle of the
nineteenth century, Scotland took her full share.

With all this progress at home the growth of the
colonial and foreign trade of the country kept steady
pace. The Act of Union did away with the old English
navigation laws, which prohibited Scotland as a foreign
country from trading with India and the English

INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE 143

colonies, and the citizens of Glasgow were not slow to
take advantage of this relief. Thus it was in Glasgow
that the commercial prosperity of Scotland first began,
and the example of enterprise set by Glasgow, modified
more or less by local circumstances, was gradually
followed by various other towns throughout the country.
At the time of the union Glasgow possessed only about a
dozen ships, and it was not until 1718 that a ship belong-
ing to Glasgow first crossed the Atlantic. A steady in-
crease of shipping followed, and so large a share of the
Virginian tobacco trade fell into the hands of the mer-
chants of Glasgow that the " tobacco lords," as these
merchants were called, soon became the wealthiest men
in Scotland. But the outbreak of the American War
of Independence in 1775 brought disaster and ruin and
many of the tobacco lords sank into obscurity. The
enterprise of Glasgow, however, was not to be sup-
pressed by a single failure and the place of tobacco was
soon taken by other trades. The sugar trade with the
West Indies, the cotton trade, and other industries
brought renewed and enlarged prosperity. Glasgow
steadily continued to increase and to flourish in its
industries, commerce, and wealth, and is now the second
city of the great British Empire and one of the chief
manufacturing and trading centres of the whole world.

CHAPTER X

EDUCATION *

Scotland has long enjoyed the reputation of being
well educated, and there is perhaps no other country
which owes so much to the schoolmaster. The revival
of learning in the second half of the fifteenth century
was taken up with keenness and intelligence in Scotland,
and many of the leaders of the Church were eager to
promote the spread of knowledge as the most hopeful
means of remedying the ecclesiastical abuses which were
only too apparent, and which caused the thoughtful
much anxiety. James IV., who was well educated
himself, was much interested in this movement, and as
early as 1496 the Scots Parliament decreed that all men
of competent means should provide their sons with a
good education, for even then there were some good
schools in Scotland. But such progress as had been
made was arrested by the violence and confusion of the
Reformation. The reformers, however, were anxious
to continue the work already begun, and desired to see
a school established in every parish, but so unsettled
were the affairs of the nation at the time, and so great
the resulting poverty, that a century passed away before
any effective efforts could be made to put this plan into
effect. Good schools, however, were gradually being
established, and in 1696 Parliament enacted that a
schoolmaster should be stationed in every parish and a
rate levied on the heritors to provide the necessary

144

EDUCATION 145

building and the schoolmaster's salary. This well-
meant Act, however, was so persistently disregarded,
largely because of the poverty of the country, the sel-
fishness or indifference of the nobility,, and the conse-
quent difficulty of finding the necessary money, that at
the middle of the eighteenth century there were whole
districts in the south "as well as in the Highlands with-
out schools and large numbers of the people unable to
read or write, but wherever schools existed the people
showed a due appreciation of their value and took
advantage of them.

The efforts made by the state were supplemented by
various other agencies, more especially by the Scottish
Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge,
incorporated in 1709, the object of which was to instruct
children, more especially in the Highlands, in the prin-
ciples of religion by teaching them to read the Bible and
the Shorter Catechism. It was frequently from the
Shorter Catechism that the child was first taught to read,
and that was the reason why the catechism used to be
published with the alphabet at the beginning of it and
the multiplication table at the end, so that it might be
used also for the teaching of arithmetic. As a reading
book the catechism was usually followed by the Gospels
and the Book of Proverbs. But in spite of all these
efforts the educational progress of the common people
continued to be slow, and at the commencement of the
nineteenth century probably not more than half the
adult population of the Highlands and other outlying
districts could either read or write.

The buildings used as schoolrooms, especially in
country districts and small villages, were frequently of
the most wretched description. Sometimes the school

146 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

was held in the church, or in a barn, or some other avail-
able place of shelter, for though the heritors of every
parish were enjoined by Act of Parliament to provide a
commodious house for the school, yet it was often found
impossible, in spite of the pleading of the kirk session,
to make them do their duty. It is needless to say that
in such circumstances the supply of school furniture
was usually insignificant. Sometimes there were no
desks at all and to do their writing the children had to
lie down on the floor. Fuel was provided by the pupils
themselves, each one of whom had to bring a peat to the
school every morning during the winter months. This
custom continued in some districts until the establish-
ment of school boards. The method of lighting was
equally primitive, and during the early decades of the
nineteenth century unglazed windows were still common
in outlying country districts. To these wretched places
children trudged barefoot over long distances in all
kinds of weather, carrying with them a meagre dinner
of dry oat or barley cakes or perhaps only of boiled
greens, to do the long and tedious day's lessons, and in
many cases to work with an intelligence and energy
which were but the beginning of an honourable and
prosperous career through life. Nothing but a genuine
love of knowledge and a deep appreciation of its import-
ance could have produced attendance at school under
such unattractive conditions, and the wonder is not
that there were so many illiterates among the common
people, but that so many of them succeeded in making
their education a means of rising to positions of honour
and distinction both at home and abroad. The experi-
ence of Scotland in the eighteenth and early part of the
nineteenth century shows that under any circumstances

EDUCATION 147

people with a desire and capacity to acquire learning
and culture will contrive to find means for doing so,
while others and perhaps the majority will remain un-
cultured and ignorant, however perfect and tempting
may be the facilities for education placed within their
reach.

According to present day ideas the school hours were
unreasonably long — from eight o'clock in the morning
or even earlier until six in the evening during the
summer months, and from sunrise to sunset in winter.
There was an hour or perhaps two hours' interval at
mid-day, and in course of time it became the rule to
have a half-holiday on Saturday. In the towns there
was a summer holiday varying from ten days to three
weeks. Country schools broke up for the " harvest
play " as soon as the corn was ripe, and the children
gradually returned to school when the harvest was
finished and their work on the farms was no longer
required.

In such circumstances as these it can readily be under-
stood that the lot of the schoolmaster was not always
an enviable one. Often without a proper dwelling-
house, for the heritors were not bound by the Act of
1696 to provide one, and unable to obtain his statutory
income, which was sometimes less than the wages earned
by a common labourer, he nevertheless honestly tried to
fulfil his duties, supported by a sense of the dignity
which his own learning gave him and of the importance
of the work in which he was engaged. The small sum,
varying from £5 to £10 a year, which formed his statu-
tory salary, was sometimes eked out by various per-
quisites, such as the school fees, which were usually
very small. Two or three times in the year the pupils

148 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

who could afford it brought small " gifts " of money,
and once a year, usually at Easter, it was the custom
until the beginning of the nineteenth century to hold a
school cock-fight. Every boy who brought a cock had
to pay an entrance fee to the schoolmaster, who also
claimed as his own property every cock killed or beaten
in the fight. In addition to his ordinary scholastic
duties the schoolmaster usually acted as clerk to the
kirk session, registrar for the parish, and precentor,
but even with some remuneration for all these offices
his gross yearly income was but a mere starvation wage.

In addition to the ordinary week-day attendance it
was the duty of the schoolmaster, especially in towns
and villages, to assemble his pupils at the school on
Sunday, conduct them to the church, keep them in
order while there, and afterwards assemble them again
at the school after each service to be catechised on what
they had heard at church. Nor did his duties end even
there, for he had to see as far as possible that his pupils
conducted themselves with due propriety and reverence
for the rest of the day or at all events that they kept
within doors. By the end of the eighteenth century
many of these exacting customs had fallen into abey-
ance, but there are men still living who can well re-
member how much the restraining influence of the
village schoolmaster, or " The Dominie " as he was
familiarly called, was felt on Sunday by his own pupils.

During the second half of the eighteenth century the
steady increase in the cost of living made the school-
masters more keenly conscious of their poverty, and
they made more than one attempt by petitions to the
General Assembly and to Parliament to obtain some
mitigation of their lot, but all in vain, until 1802, when

EDUCATION 149

their grievances at last received some attention, and it
was ordained by Act of Parliament that their income
should not be under 300 merks (£16 13s. 4d. sterling) nor
above 400 merks (£22 4s. 6d. sterling), and that the
heritors should provide them with a house of not less
than two rooms and a garden not less than a quarter of
a Scots acre, or instead of a garden two bolls of oatmeal.
It was in 1839 tnat the central government began its
system of inspection and yearly grants of money to
schools in Scotland, though small sums had been granted
for providing school buildings as far back as 1832.
Since then the income of the Scottish schoolmaster has
steadily increased and his lot generally has undergone
a marked improvement. The parish schools were
examined once a year by the Presbytery, and these
examinations continued until 1872, when Lord Young's
Scottish Education Act put an end to the old schools
and established the educational system which still
obtains.

In addition to the parish schools there were also
burgh or grammar schools, which were under the man-
agement of the town councils and usually prepared
pupils for the universities. The curriculum included
religion, English, Latin, Greek, French, and mathe-
matics. Latin, however, was the chief of the secular
subjects, and so well was it taught that when boys left
about the age of fourteen they could read and write that
language with tolerable accuracy. It was a common
rule in burgh schools to allow nothing but Latin to be
spoken either in the classroom or in the playground, and
the effect of this rule was to give the boys such a
practical mastery of the language as is rarely, if ever,
met with among the schoolboys of to-day. " The

150 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

Schools Inquiry Commission," which visited Scotland
in 1866, was impressed by the excellence of the Latin
teaching and the intelligent keenness of the boys of the
secondary schools. Even then Latin was much less of
a dead language among schoolmasters and their pupils
than it is now.

It was about the age of fourteen that boys left school
and entered the university for a course which usually
extended over four years, and as Latin was invariably
the medium of instruction it can easily be understood
how necessary it was that the youthful student should
possess a sound and practical knowledge of that
language. In the early decades of the eighteenth
century the instruction at the universities was given by
teachers who were called regents, each one of whom
took charge of a class which he taught himself, session
after session, in all the subjects that made up the four
years' course of study, so that the student had only one
teacher during the whole of the prescribed period of atten-
dance. As the regular curriculum included such diverse
subjects as Greek, metaphysics, ethics, logic, mathe-
matics, etc., the regent could hardly be expected to be
specially proficient in all that he had to teach. The
instruction had therefore to be given by means of formal
textbooks which neither stimulated nor encouraged
independent thought, and in the early part of the
century many young men of good family went to the
Dutch universities for sound learning, especially in law
and medicine. The regenting system was given up
first in Edinburgh about 1708, when special professors
began to be appointed for the various subjects that
formed the curriculum. Similar changes gradually
followed in the other universities, and before the close

EDUCATION 151

of the century the old system had passed entirely away
and given place to the professorial system which still
prevails. Almost side by side with the new system
there came also another very important change. In
1729 Professor Hutcheson of Glasgow gave up Latin
and began to lecture to his students in English. His
example was gradually followed by some of the pro-
fessors in the other universities, but lecturing in Latin
was not entirely given up until towards the end of the
eighteenth century. An important event in the history
of the Scottish universities was the appointment of Dr.
Alexander Monro as Professor of Anatomy in Edinburgh
in 1724. By his brilliant teaching students began
to be attracted in large numbers from England, and
the medical school of Edinburgh soon acquired a
European reputation which it may be said to have still
retained.

In the early part of the eighteenth century many of
the students used to live in hostelries provided in the
precincts of the college for their accommodation.
There they were boarded and lodged at small fees, and
were under the strict and constant surveillance of their
regents or professors — a precaution which the tender
age of the students rendered at least reasonable. But
the rules were intolerably severe and among the students
themselves this system of living was not at all popular.
By the middle of the century it had largely fallen into
disuse and the hostel chambers began to be let for other
purposes. It was continued in St. Andrew's longer
than at the other universities, but before the close of
the eighteenth century the mode of living in lodgings,
which still prevails at the Scottish universities, had
become permanently established.

152 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

Of what we understand by scholarship there was
very little, at this time, in the Scottish universities.
The work done was in reality that of the secondary
school, for the students were but mere boys to whose
age and capacity such work was best adapted. Never-
theless, personal contact with some of the distinguished
men who were to be found among the teachers, especi-
ally after the institution of the professoriate, had an
important influence in forming the student's ideals and
in shaping his character, while the teaching of the
Scottish philosophy — a philosophy which may be said to
have dealt with all human interests — helped to give life
a meaning and a consistency which proved of priceless
value in the national education.

The parish schools also did a great work for Scotland,
and the extraordinary advancement of the country in all
spheres of life during the eighteenth century can be
traced very largely to the stimulating influence of the
schoolmaster's humble and ill-paid efforts. The educa-
tion provided was mainly religious, and had for one of
its chief aims the formation of character and of a sense
of the responsibilities of life. The progress made in
learning by so many of the pupils, who afterwards
carved out for themselves a successful and honourable
career, was the result, not of the time or of the labour
that the schoolmaster was able to devote to his teaching,
nor of any attractiveness possessed by the circum-
stances and surroundings in which that teaching was
imparted, but of the remarkable success with which he
awoke the interest of his pupils in their work, and
created among them the desire to pursue knowledge for
its own sake. In all this good work a large share of the
credit must be claimed on behalf of the Church, for the

EDUCATION 153

schoolmaster's efforts were always heartily supported
by the minister, who never missed an opportunity of
impressing upon parents their responsibility for the
careful upbringing of their children and the great
importance of a good education.

CHAPTER XI

LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND ART

The union found the voice of Scottish song silent.
The civil and religious strife of the preceding century
was extremely unfavourable to literary culture, and
even if literary works had been produced during the
peace which followed the Revolution, Scotland was too
poor to provide purchasers, while the language was un-
suited for ordinary readers in England. The union not
only made the material conditions more favourable,
but, what was even of more importance as a stimulus to
literary efforts, the discussions which arose in connec-
tion with it and the fear of absorption into England
revived the patriotism of the nation. The result of
this revival was first seen in collections of Scottish
songs which were made at the time of the union and
the years immediately following, and which may be
regarded as the first starting point of modern Scottish
literature.

There was at the same time a revival of interest in
the literature of England and in the cultivation of
literary style. In promoting this movement no one
took a more prominent part than Thomas Ruddiman, a
graduate of Aberdeen University, who began life as a
schoolmaster at Laurencekirk, and in 1700 moved to
Edinburgh, where he was appointed keeper of the
Advocates' Library. In addition to his duties as
librarian he set up a printing press, from which he issued

154

LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND ART 155

many learned and important books, including the Latin
Grammar by which his name is best remembered. He
also published the Caledonian Mercury, a Jacobite and
tory newspaper founded about"i720, for Ruddiman was
an ardent Jacobite and Episcopalian and spent much of
his time in keen controversy with the whig Presby-
terians, who sternly frowned on all who indulged in
profane literature. Before Ruddiman's death, which
occurred in 1757, a great change had come over the
literary tastes and ideals of his countrymen.

The chief and most active worker in the revival of
the vernacular literature was the poet Allan Ramsay.
He was born among the Lead Hills in Lanarkshire in
1686 and at the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to a
wigmaker in Edinburgh. This business he followed
for many years, but in 1726 he became a bookseller, and
afterwards opened a circulating library, the first of its
kind in Scotland. Meantime he had become known
as a poet, and in 1721 had published a collection of
his works. Many of these poems were satirical and
humorous and soon passed into favour not only in
Scotland but also among some of the foremost literary
men in England. In 1724 appeared the first volume of
his Tea Table Miscellany, a collection of songs, the
fourth and last volume of which appeared in 1740. It
was in 1725 that he published his best known work,
The Gentle Shepherd, a pastoral comedy in which the
country life of Scotland is idealised and the characters
made to speak the homely Scots dialect. The success
of this poem was very great, among those who admired
it being the poet Pope, to whom his Scottish friend,
Dr. Arbuthnot, read it and explained the dialect. For a
poet Ramsay's career was a prosperous one. He died

156 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

in 1758, his son Allan having already become famous as
an artist.

The heritage of native song preserved and amplified
by Allan Ramsay was taken up by Robert Fergusson,
who in his turn transferred it to the greater genius of
Robert Burns. Robert Fergusson was born in Edin-
burgh in 1750, and was educated for the Church in St.
Andrew's University. He began to write poetry at an
early age, and all thoughts of the Church were soon
abandoned. On his return to Edinburgh he received
an appointment as a lawyer's clerk and continued to
write poetry. His poems gained him a local reputation
which proved his ruin by drawing him into the con-
vivial excesses of the age, and his health soon became
permanently injured. He died in 1774 at the age of
twenty-four and was buried in the Canongate church-
yard, where Burns afterwards placed a stone on his
grave. Fergusson's poems are humorous and true
descriptions of Scottish life and character in town and
in country, and they gain a greater interest and fame
from the admiration bestowed upon them by Burns, who
was stimulated to the production of his own master-
pieces by his study of Fergusson's works.

Robert Burns, the national poet of Scotland, and one
of the greatest of all song writers, was born at Alloway,
near Ayr, on January 25, 1759. His father was a small
farmer, who in 1766 moved to Mount Oliphant, also
near Ayr, and in 1777 to Lochlea, near Tarbolton, and
died in 1784. Burns received as good an education as
his circumstances could afford and became an eager
reader of books from a very early age. At Lochlea he
worked as a regular ploughman on his father's farm,
but in 1 78 1 was sent to Irvine to learn flax-dressing,

LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND ART 157

where he unfortunately made the acquaintance of loose
sailors and smugglers and fell to seme extent under
their evil influences. The flax-spinning proved a
failure and he was soon back again to Lochlea. On
the death of their father, Robert Burns and his brother
took the farm of Mossgiel, near Mauchline. It was in
the same year, 1784, that he first read Robert Fergus-
son's poems, and it was during the next two years, at
Mossgiel, that his genius shone forth at its brightest and
that his best work was produced. But his farming at
Mossgiel did not succeed and the unfortunate poet was
soon overtaken by many troubles. He also got into
difficulties with the " Old Lights " of his neighbourhood,
as the ministers of the extreme puritanic party were
called, though he had some friends among the " New
Lights " or moderates. To escape from his troubles he
prepared to emigrate to Jamaica, and in 1786 published
his poems at Kilmarnock to raise money for the voyage.
The success of the little volume was very great and his
fame as a poet soon reached the literary circles of
Edinburgh, whither, as he was on the eve of sailing to
Jamaica, he received an invitation from the blind poet,
the Rev. Dr. Thomas Blacklock. To Edinburgh he
proceeded forthwith and there spent the winter of 1786-
1787, moving with freedom and ease among the social
and intellectual leaders of the capital and triumphantly
holding his place with the best of them. A second
edition of his poems appeared in 1787. His part in the
farm of Mossgiel was now given up and, after spending
a few months in visiting the Border country and the
Highlands, he returned to Edinburgh for the winter,
though not to the social triumphs of his former visit.
In 1788 he married Jean Armour and took the farm of

158 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

Ellisland near Dumfries, where, he settled down during
a few months for what was perhaps the happiest period
of his life, working with his men in the fields, holding
family worship, and going to church on Sunday. But
this peaceful and happy life did not last long, for his
farming did not succeed, and to meet expenses he was
glad to receive an appointment in the excise, which
made it necessary for him to travel about the country
and thus to become exposed once more to the old con-
vivial temptations. For some time he combined the
two occupations of farmer and exciseman, but in 1791
his farm stock was sold and he then moved with his
family into the town of Dumfries. During the latter
years of his life he contributed many songs to James
Johnson's Scots Musical Museum and to George Thom-
son's Collection of Scottish Songs and Airs. The stories
of the drunkenness and dissipation of these years were
probably much exaggerated, but there was nevertheless
a woful falling off in self-respect, and the closing scenes
of his life were sad and pathetic. His health broke
down, and with many unavailing regrets for the past,
and much anxiety for the future of his family, he died
at Dumfries on July 31, 1796. Over the faults and
failings of the ruined life of Robert Burns merciful time
is slowly drawing the veil of oblivion, leaving to the
English-speaking world his noble heritage of song and
to Scotland the proud memory of one of the world's
greatest poets.

The Rev. John Skinner was also the author of some
good Scottish songs. He was born at Birse, in Aber-
deenshire, in 1721, was educated at Aberdeen, and was
Episcopalian minister of Longside, near Peterhead, from
1742 until his death. His house was pillaged and his

LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND ART 159

chapel burnt by the Duke of Cumberland in 1746. He
was a contributor to Johnson's Scots Musical Museum
and one of the correspondents of Robert Burns. He died
in 1807 and his poems were collected and published in
1809, the best known among them being " Tullochgorm."

Another writer of delightful songs in the Scottish
vernacular was Robert Tannahill, who was born at
Paisley in 1774 and brought up as a handloom weaver.
As a youth he became an ardent student of Burns and
in 1807 published a volume of his own poems and songs,
which include such favourites as " Gloomy winter's noo
awa," " Jessie, the Flower of Dunblane," " The Bonnie
Wood o' Craigielea." Shortly afterwards he fell into a
state of despondency and was found drowned in a canal
near Paisley in 1810.

Next to Burns perhaps the greatest of the peasant poets
or writers of Scotland was James Hogg, the " Ettrick
Shepherd." He was born in the parish of Ettrick,
in Selkirkshire, in 1770. He received little education
and spent his youth as a shepherd, but his mother awoke
in him at an early age a taste for the ballads and legends
of his country and he became an ardent reader of poetry
and romance. His first volume of poems was published
in 1801, and about the same time he was fortunate
enough to make the acquaintance of Sir Walter Scott,
whom he assisted in collecting ballads for the Min-
strelsy of the Border. He afterwards received the farm
of Altrive, now Eldinehope, on the estate of the Duke of
Buccleuch, at a nominal rent, but his management of it
was not very successful. Here he died in 1835. Hogg
produced many works in verse and in prose. One of
his best known songs is " When the Kye comes home."

Among the Scottish writers who cultivated an English

160 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

style and so influenced the course of English literature
in the eighteenth century the first place must be as-
signed to the poet Thomson. James Thomson was the
son of a Roxburghshire minister and was born in 1700.
He was educated at Edinburgh University for the
Church, but, that plan having been abandoned, he
removed to London in 1725 to try his fortune in litera-
ture, and in the following year published Winter, the
first of his poems on the seasons. It was at once suc-
cessful, and was followed by Summer in 1727, Spring in
1728, and Autumn in 1730. Among his patrons he had
Frederick, Prince of Wales, who gave him a pension of
£100. He also obtained the sinecure post of Surveyor-
General of the Leeward Islands at a yearly salary of
£300, and on this income he led a lazy bachelor life at
Richmond, Surrey. He wrote several tragedies, but
perhaps his finest work is The Castle of Indolence,
published shortly before his death, which occurred at
Richmond in 1748. The great merit of Thomson's
work lies in the fact that he broke away from the artifi-
cial poetry of the time and brought English readers once
more into contact with nature. In Winter he describes
nature as he knew it in tempest and storm among the
Roxburgh hills, but in the other seasons he describes
the more genial rural life of the south of England.
There were other men who abandoned the Scottish
vernacular to carry a Scottish strain into the greater
literature of England, but Thomson was by far the
greatest of them and the one whose influence is most
perceptible. He is the author of the well-known
patriotic song " Rule, Britannia," though it was claimed
also for David Mallet, one of Thomson's literary Scottish
friends in London.

LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND ART 161

Of the many literary Scotsmen who settled in
London during the eighteenth century, Tobias George
Smollett, novelist, must rank next to Thomson in his
influence on English literature, for no writer did more
than he to establish what was then the new form of
fiction, also a return to nature, in which the novelist
describes his experiences of the life of his own times.
Smollett was born at Dalquhurn, in Dumbartonshire, in
172 1. He was educated at Glasgow University and
was apprenticed to a surgeon. In 1739 he went to
London with a tragedy, but failed to get it put on the
stage. He then received the post of a naval surgeon's
mate, and took part in an unfortunate expedition
against the Spanish town of Cartagena in South America
in 1741. In 1744 he started a medical practice in
London, but apparently without much success. In
1746 he published anonymously a poem called The Tears
of Scotland, expressing in fierce invective, though he
was not a Jacobite, his indignation at the cruelties
perpetrated by the Duke of Cumberland after the
Battle of Culloden. In 1747 he married Anne Lascelles
of Jamaica, who had an income of £300 a year, which
saved him from poverty and gave him time to write. In
1755 he visited Scotland, where he spent a short but
pleasant time with his mother, then living in Peebles-
shire, and made the acquaintance of the chief literary
men of Edinburgh. His life in London was one of in-
cessant literary toil and many difficulties and much
quarrelling, especially with the disreputable politician
John Wilkes and the rakish poet Charles Churchill, both
of whom were insolent and venomous in their incessant
abuse of Scotland. At length his health began to break
down. Another visit to Scotland to his aged mother,

L

i62 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

now living in Edinburgh, restored him a little, but in
1770 he left London for Italy, relying on his wife's
income, now somewhat uncertain however, and died
near Leghorn in 1771. Smollett was a voluminous
writer in various fields of literature. His chief novels
are The Adventures of Roderick Random (1748), The
Adventures of Peregrine Pickle (1751), The Expedition
of Humphrey Clinker (1771), which is considered his
best work, but he did not live to hear the praise with
which it was received. He also wrote translations of
Don Quixote and Gil Bias, and a History of England,
part of which was afterwards published as a continua-
tion of Hume's history.

The eighteenth century closes with the commence-
ment of the literary career of the Scottish poet Thomas
Campbell, who was born in Glasgow in 1777 and
educated at the university of that city. He travelled
on the continent, and in 1803 he married and settled in
London. His chief work is The Pleasures of Hope,
published in 1799, which has become an established
English classic, but he is best known by some of his
shorter poems, such as " Ye Mariners of England " and
" The Battle of the Baltic," which are remarkable for
their easy language, martial spirit, and patriotic feeling.
He died at Boulogne in 1844 and was buried in West-
minster Abbey.

Of the literary men who made Edinburgh so famous
about the middle of the eighteenth century none was
greater, nor has exerted a wider influence on the course
of modern thought, than the philosopher and historian
David Hume. He was the younger son of the laird of
Ninewells, in Berwickshire, andjvas born in Edinburgh
on April 26, 171 1. He was educated at Edinburgh

LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND ART 163

University and was intended for the law, but as legal
studies were distasteful to him he was sent in 1734 to a
merchant's office in Bristol, which he left before the end
of the year. He then went to France, where he could
live cheaply, and devoted himself to literature. After
an absence of three years he returned to Ninewells, and
in 1739 published his Treatise on Human Nature, which
he had written in France and which is perhaps the best
exposition of his philosophy. Though it fell " dead
bom from the press " and little or no notice was taken
of it at the time, yet it was destined to exercise a far-
reaching influence, for it gave the first impulse not only
to Scottish philosophy but also to the German philo-
sophy of Immanuel Kant. In 1745 he was for some
time companion or keeper to the Marquis of Annandale
who was weak in mind and body; next year he was
appointed secretary of an expedition against France,
and in the following year, 1747, took part in a military
embassy to France and Turin. In 1751 he published
his Inquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, which
contains a clear exposition of the principles of the
utilitarian philosophy, and his Political Discourses, in
which he sets forth the principle of free trade afterwards
expounded by Adam Smith. In 1752 he was appointed
keeper of the Advocates' Library, an appointment
which placed all the best books of the day at his disposal.
He now turned his attention to history and in 1754 he
published his first volume of his History of England from
the Conquest to the Revolution, which was completed in
five volumes in 1761. Smollett's History of England
from the Revolution to the Death of George II. is usually
printed as a continuation of Hume's. In 1763 Hume
went to Paris as secretary to the ambassador, the Earl

164 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

of Hertford, and remained there until 1766, when he
returned to England, bringing with him Rousseau, on
whom King George III. conferred a pension of £100 a
year. But the morbid Frenchman fell into the delu-
sion that Hume was acting as an agent of his enemies
and returned in a fit of anger to France, after a stay of
thirteen months in England. In 1767 Hume was made
Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department
and was now possessed both of ample means and of
fame. He finally retired to Edinburgh in 1769 and
there died unmarried on August 25, 1776. It is as a
philosopher that Hume's reputation stands highest,
though his philosophical writings do not form a system.
He discussed the various philosophical schools of his
own day in a sceptical and destructive manner and
showed that the theories put forward with so much
confidence were mere conjectures and could form no
foundation for real knowledge. He thus compelled
philosophers to take a new and a profounder view of
human nature. He himself upheld the dignity of man
and maintained that " the sentiments of those who are
inclined to think favourably of mankind are much more
advantageous to virtue than the contrary principles
which give us a mean opinion of our nature." Among
historians Hume occupies a high place. He had the
power of estimating every kind of historical evidence,
could grasp the views of contending parties with great
clearness and always presented them with impartiality
and fairness. His style is easy and polished, his narra-
tive admirably clear and lucid, and he has always the
most perfect mastery of his own ideas. His country-
men branded Hume as an infidel, and the enemies of
religion have usually been allowed to claim him as

LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND ART 165

their own, but there was nothing in his life to support
such claims. He lived on terms of the most intimate
friendship with the most enlightened and most highly
respected Scottish ministers of his time. He was a
church-goer and showed constant deference to the dic-
tates of revealed religion. Those who knew him best
saw many symptoms of religious feeling in his life, and
he himself keenly resented being called an atheist or a
deist. Personally Hume had every quality that could
attract friends and make his society agreeable. He was
generous, cheerful, and sympathetic. His conversation
was interesting and humorous, and in the best society of
his native city he was the best liked man of his time.

Of the Scottish philosophers who followed David Hume
the greatest was the Rev. Dr. Thomas Reid, author of
the " Common Sense " philosophy. He was born at
Strachan Manse, Kincardineshire, in 1710, educated at
Marischal College, Aberdeen, and in 1737 he became
minister of New Machar in Aberdeenshire. In 1752
he was appointed Professor of Philosophy in King's
College, Aberdeen, and in 1763 Professor of Moral
Philosophy in Glasgow. He retired in 1780 and died in
Glasgow in 1796. It was after reading Hume's Treatise
on Human Nature that Reid resolved to seek for philo-
sophy a new foundation on which to raise it out of the
state of scepticism in which Hume had placed it. The
result was his Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Prin-
ciples of Common Sense, which was published in 1764.
In this work Reid sought to vindicate the fundamental
laws of belief and to place truth on an unassailable
foundation by maintaining that the mind's perception
of an external world, of free will, and of causation is
valid and real, and that the reasonings and speculations

166 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

of philosophy are futile against the common sense, that
is to say, the intuitive belief of man in the reality of
these things. As an interesting and pleasing illustration
of the manner and spirit in which these Scottish philo-
sophers conducted their controversies it may be men-
tioned that before publishing this work, Reid, through
his friend the Rev. Dr. Hugh Blair, submitted the
manuscript to Hume's inspection in order that any
misstatements about Hume's own position might be
corrected. No other system of philosophy has taken
such deep hold of the British mind as Reid's common-
sense philosophy, and it is on the principles which form
its foundations that Tennyson bases the religious teach-
ing of his great poem the In Memoriam.

Next to Reid must be mentioned Adam Smith,
philosopher and political economist, who was born at
Kirkcaldy in 1723. He was educated at Glasgow and
at Balliol College, Oxford, and in 175 1 was appointed
Professor of Logic in Glasgow University, a post which
he gave up in 1763 to travel on the continent with the
young Duke of Buccleuch. After travelling for three
years he returned to Scotland in 1766 and went to live
with his mother at Kirkcaldy. In 1776 he removed to
London, but in 1778 he returned as Commissioner of
Customs to Edinburgh, where he died in 1790. Smith's
chief work was his Inquiry into the Nature and Causes
of the Wealth of Nations, which was published in 1776
and in which he expounded the doctrine of free trade
and other principles of the modern science of political
economy.

The other chief philosophical writers of this period
were Francis Hutcheson, Lord Karnes, Adam Ferguson,
James Beattie, and Dugald Stewart, all of them essen-

LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND ART 167

tially Scottish in character and in sympathy. With
these, though differing from them in several respects,
may be included Sir William Hamilton.

Of the historians who followed Hume the most noted
was the Rev. Dr. William Robertson. He was born at
Borthwick Manse, Midlothian, in 1721 and educated at
Edinburgh University. From 1761 until his death he
was joint minister of the Greyfriars Church, Edinburgh,
having for his colleague the Rev. Dr. John Erskine,
leader of the evangelical party in the General Assembly
of the Church, while Robertson himself was leader of
the moderate party. In 1762 Robertson was appointed
Principal of Edinburgh University, and it was through
his exertions, continued during many weary years, that
the erection of the new university buildings was at last
commenced in 1789. But it is as a historian that
Robertson is best known. His chief works were a
History of Scoland, published in 1759, which was a great
success, and a History of Charles V. in 1769, for which
he received high praise both from Voltaire and from
Gibbon. He died in 1793.

The other principal Scottish writers of history in the
eighteenth century were William Tytler, Robert Henry,
Adam Ferguson, and Lord Hailes, and in the nineteenth
century, Patrick Fraser Tytler, Sir Archibald Alison, John
Hill Burton, Thomas Carlyle, and William Forbes Skene.

Among the religious writers of Scotland during this
period may be mentioned the Rev. Thomas Boston, who
was born at Duns, in Berwickshire, in 1676 and educated
at Edinburgh University. He became minister of
Ettrick, in Selkirkshire, in 1707, and there died in 1732.
His chief work was the Fourfold State of Man, published
in 1720, in which he discourses about the state of perfect

168 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

integrity before the fall of Adam, the state of total de-
pravity and sin as the result of the fall, the state of
recovery commenced on earth, and the state of eternal
happiness or misery after death. This book was for
many generations the recognised exposition of the
extreme Calvinistic theology of Scotland. Boston left
an extremely interesting Autobiography which was
published in 1776. Another writer of an interesting
and valuable autobiography was the Rev. Dr. Alexander
Carlyle, whose imposing presence earned for him the
name of " Jupiter Carlyle." He was born at Cummer-
trees Manse, Dumfriesshire, in 1722, educated at Edin-
burgh, Glasgow, and Leyden, and was minister of
Inveresk, in Midlothian, from 1748 until his death in
1805. He was one of the leaders of the moderate party
in the Church and the friend of the chief literary men of
his time. His Autobiography was first published in
i860. But perhaps the best known religious writer in
Scotland in the eighteenth century was the Rev. Dr.
Hugh Blair, another prominent member of the moderate'
party. He was born in Edinburgh in 1730 and educated
at the university. He became one of the ministers of
the High Church, Edinburgh, in 1758, and was also
Professor of Rhetoric at the university from 1762 to
1783. His sermons, first published in 1777, gained a
great reputation and were not only widely read in
England as well as in Scotland, but were translated
into most of the languages of Europe. They were
praised by Dr. Samuel Johnson and also by George III.,
who conferred on the author a substantial pension.
Blair died in 1800. The Rev. Dr. Thomas Chalmers
was a voluminous writer on various subjects such as
science, social economy, and theology.

LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND ART 169

One of the most interesting literary events of the
second half of the eighteenth century was the contro-
versy that arose with regard to the genuineness of
Macpherson's Ossian. This work, which was published
in 1762, claimed to be an English translation of some
traditional Gaelic poems by Ossian, who flourished in
the third century. The general verdict now is that
these so-called translations are largely Macpherson's
own invention and that they owed their great success
to the reproduction in a new form of gloomy tendencies
of thought which were fashionable at the time.

But the most versatile and truly national genius of
Scotland was Sir Walter Scott. He was born in Edin-
burgh on August 15, 1771, and was connected with the
noblest and most historical families of the south of
Scotland. When only eighteen months old he had an
illness which impaired the use of his right leg and left
him lame for life. He spent part of his childhood on
his grandfather's farm at Sandy kno we on the Tweed,
and became interested at an early age in the legends
and ballads of the Border country. He was educated
at the High School, Edinburgh, and afterwards at the
university, but in neither was he distinguished as a
student. In 1785 he began the study of law with his
father, who was a Writer to the Signet. He worked
well and in 1792 was admitted an advocate. When
Burns was in Edinburgh in the winter of 1786-1787 Scott
had one meeting with him in the house of Professor
Adam Ferguson. As a young man Scott made many
journeys in the Borderland and in the Highlands, con-
tinually adding to his store of ballad and legendary lore
and observing character among all classes of the people.
In 1797 he married Miss Charlotte Margaret Charpentier,

170 SCOTLAND SINGE THE UNION

the daughter of a French refugee, by whom he had a
family of two daughters. In 1799 he received the
appointment of sheriff of Selkirkshire, and in 1806 he
became one of the principal clerks of the Court of
Session and retired from the bar. His first publication
was a translation of some German ballads in 1796. In
1802 appeared the first two volumes of The Border
Minstrelsy, and in 1805 The Lay of the Last Minstrel,
which at once established his fame as a poet. Marmion
followed in 1808, and in The Lady of the Lake, published
in 1810, his poetic genius achieved its greatest triumph.
In 181 1 he purchased a farm on the banks of the Tweed
three miles above Melrose and began to change the
house, which was small and inconvenient, into the
mansion of Abbotsford. Other poems followed The
Lady of the Lake, but were not so successful as his former
ones had been. He then began to turn his attention to
fiction and the second great epoch of his literary career
began with the publication of Waverley in 1814, which
was followed in quick succession by Guy Mannering,
The Antiquary, The Black Dwarf, Old Mortality, Rob
Roy, and The Heart of Midlothian. These works were
published anonymously, but the public gradually began
to suspect that Scott was the " Great Unknown," as
the author was often spoken of. His literary labours,
however, were not confined to the novels which he pro-
duced in such rapid succession. He was secretly in
partnership with Ballantyne & Co., his printers, and had
connections also with Constable & Co., the Edinburgh
publishers, so that he had to do with many publications
either as author or editor. He nevertheless took an
active interest in public affairs, never neglected the
duties of his official appointments, and found time to

LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND ART 171

entertain the guests who came to partake of his generous
hospitality at Abbotsford. In 1820 he was made a
baronet by George IV. and had now reached the height
of his fame and outward prosperity. But in 1826 the
firms of Constable & Co. and also of Ballantyne & Co.
both failed and Scott became liable for a sum of more
than £130,000. A few months afterwards he lost his
wife. Scott met these crushing misfortunes with the
most heroic fortitude. The remaining years of his life
were years of incessant toil and failing health. Every
moment that could be spared from his official duties
was given to literary work. Book after book was pro-
duced in quick succession, and the debt was finally
cleared, though not before his death, which occurred at
Abbotsford on September 21, 1832.

Scott was in the best sense of the word a great man.
He was sagacious, far-seeing, and fair-minded in all
affairs relating to Scotland and to the British Empire
at large. He disliked the arrogant whigs of Edinburgh,
with their floutings at Scottish prejudices and char-
acteristics and their constant assertions that the power
of England was on the wane. His own toryism was
largely the outcome of his desire to preserve what was
best in the traditions of his country and in the character
of his race. His political heroes were Pitt and Dundas,
and strongly Scottish and patriotic as he was himself, no
one appreciated more fully than he did the great
qualities of the people of the sister kingdom of England
or believed more hopefully in the high destiny of the
Anglo-Saxon race. He was a man of pure life, generous,
tolerant, and large-minded, and with wide religious
sympathies, for though he was himself an Episcopalian
he fully appreciated what was best and most enlightened

172 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

in the Presbyterianism of his countrymen. His writings
are wholesome for all readers, and there is nothing in
the life or character of Scotsmen or in the scenery and
history of their country which he does not set forth in
the healthiest and most attractive light. It is, in fact,
from his Tales of a Grandfather, more than from any
other book, that most readers for nearly a century have
obtained their ideas of Scottish history. For the pure
essence of poetry he did not possess the genius of Burns,
but in the power of creating new and real characters he
must be ranked next to Shakespeare. It would be un-
necessary to give a complete list of his numerous works ;
the best of them are well known and easily accessible to
all readers. They have been translated into many
languages and are widely read over the whole of
Europe.

It would not be possible to give an exhaustive
account of all the noted Scottish writers who have
flourished since the union, but the following additional
names may be mentioned : the Rev. Robert Wodrow,
Scottish Church historian ; the Rev. Robert Blair, author
of " The Grave " ; Mrs. Alison Cockburn, authoress of a
version of "The Flowers of the Forest " ; Lord Monboddo ;
William Falconer, sailor, author of a poem called ' ' The
Shipwreck " ; James Boswell, author of the Life of Dr.
Samuel Johnson, which is admitted to be the best
biography in the English language ; Henry Mackenzie,
author of The Man of Feeling; Lady Anne Barnard,
authoress of " Auld Robin Gray " ; Lady Nairne, authoress
of "The Land of the Leal," "Caller Herrin'," "The
Laird o' Cockpen," etc.; Lord Jeffrey; John Gait,
novelist ; Allan Cunningham, poet ; the Rev. Dr. Horatius
Bonar, hymn writer ; James Grant, novelist, and others.

LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND ART 173

In the literary activity of Scotland during this period
the Highlands also had their share, and there was a
remarkable outburst of Gaelic song during the second
half of the eighteenth century. There are specimens
of the Gaelic poetry of the Revolution period preserved
in what is known as the Fernaig Manuscript, a collec-
tion of poems made about 1693 by Duncan Macrae of
Inverinate, in Kintail, Ross-shire. These poems are
mainly religious and political, and they are valuable as
setting forth in a true and reliable light what must have
been the prevailing views of the best Highlanders during
the period which ended with the Battle of Culloden.
They are Jacobite and Episcopalian. They show a clear
and intelligent grasp of the great questions of the time ;
their teaching is thoroughly practical, and they display a
devout and tolerant spirit which is altogether pleasant
to contemplate, and show that the state of religious
feeling and practice in the Highlands then was very
different from the heathenism alleged by some of the
early Presbyterian ministers.

Of the Gaelic poets who flourished in the middle and
second half of the eighteenth century the chief place
must be assigned to Duncan Macintyre, commonly
called Duncan Bane (Duncan the Fair). He was born
at Glenorchy, in Argyllshire, in 1724. His first recorded
poem was composed in 1746 on the Battle of Falkirk, in
which he fought apparently with some reluctance on
the royalist side, his last in 1802, so that his literary
activity covers a period of over half a century, but a
great many of his poems have undoubtedly been lost.
Those preserved were taken down from his own recita-
tion in his old age, and even they are probably not so

174 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

perfect as they would have been if they had been com-
mitted to writing in the days of his pristine intellectual
vigour. He died in Edinburgh in 1812 and was buried
in the Greyfriars churchyard. Macintyre could neither
read nor write himself, so that he may be regarded as a
perfect instance of a purely primitive poet who drew his
inspiration solely from his own observation of men and
things and from nature as Nmanifested in the matchless
beauties of his own Highland glens and mountains. In
his appreciation of those beauties, in the clearness and
truthfulness of his descriptions, and in his inimitable
powers of expression, Macintyre must rank as a poet of
the first order. The other best known Gaelic poets of
this period were Alexander Macdonald, a native of
Moidart, in Inverness-shire ; Robert Mackay, the Suther-
land poet; Dugald Buchanan, a native of Perthshire,
who wrote religious poetry; William Ross, a native of
Ross-shire ; and Ewen Maclachlan, a native of Lochaber,
who became rector of the grammar school of Old Aber-
deen. With the exception of Robert Mackay, all these
were men of good education, well versed in the works of
the best English and Latin authors, in touch with the
literary movements of the south, and perceptibly in-
fluenced by English contemporary writers, more especi-
ally by Thomson, but even when the thought is foreign
and perhaps meagre the language is always easy, clear,
forcible, and musical.

The national art of Scotland at the time of the union
was at the lowest possible ebb. George Jamesone,
" The Scots Vandyke " (1588-1644), a native of Aber-
deen, left no successor. The imaginary portraits of the
kings of Scotland in Holyrood Palace were painted in

LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND ART 175

the reign of Queen Anne by a Dutch artist called De
Witt. Allan Ramsay (1713-1784), son of the poet,
studied at Rome and became a fashionable and distin-
guished portrait painter, but though he kept up his
connections with Scotland he lived chiefly in London
and became court painter for King George III. Alex-
ander Runciman (1736-1785), who was born in Edin-
burgh and lived there, was a celebrated historical
painter. In 1753 Robert Foulis (1707-1776), printer to
the University of Glasgow, opened a school of art in
that city, which was conducted with indifferent success
and little encouragement from his fellow citizens for
about twenty years. One of the students of this art
school was David Allan (1774-1796), a native of Alloa,
whose drawings for Allan Ramsay's Gentle Shepherd are
excellent illustrations of the rural Scottish life of that
time. There were many good portrait painters in
Edinburgh during this period, such as Alexander
Nasmyth (1758-1840), to whom we owe a well-known
portrait of Robert Burns in 1787, but the greatest of
them all was Sir Henry Raeburn (1 756-1 823), a native
of Edinburgh, who has left us portraits of David Hume,
Sir Walter Scott, James Boswell, Lord Melville, Sir
David Baird, Sir John Sinclair, Henry Mackenzie, Neil
Gow, Henry Erskine, Dugald Stewart, Lord Jeffrey,
Lord Cockburn, and others. Sir David Wilkie (1785-
1841), a native of Fifeshire, was one of the greatest of
British artists and painted many scenes of homely
Scottish life. His greatest work is said to be " The
Chelsea Pensioners listening to the News of Waterloo,"
which was painted for the Duke of Wellington. The
Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture, and

176 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

Architecture was founded in Edinburgh in 1826 and in-
corporated in 1838, and of late the " Glasgow School " of
painters has raised the standard of Scottish art to a
still higher level.

Note. — Further particulars about men whose names are only
mentioned- in this chapter will be found in the biographical notes
at the end of the book.

PROFESSOR THOMAS REID, D.D.

CHAPTER XII

RELIGION

As the causes of the various ecclesiastical controversies
which have agitated Scotland since the union had their
origin in earlier times, it will be convenient to begin this
chapter with a brief survey of the events immediately
following the Reformation. It was in the year 1560
that the Scottish Parliament formally adopted the
reformed religion, and the leaders of the movement at
this period are known as " the Lords of the Congrega-
tion." In that year the Scottish Confession of Faith,
usually known as " Knox's Confession," was adopted;
and .the government of the Church was entrusted to ten
superintendents, each presiding over a district or dio-
cese, and the first General Assembly was held. In 1564
the Book of Common Order, usually known as " Knox's
Liturgy " and originally prepared for an English con-
gregation at Geneva, was adopted for public worship
and continued in use for nearly a century, that is, until
it was superseded by the Directory of Public Worship,
which was drawn up by the Westminster Assembly Of
Divines. It contained forms for ordinary worship both
on Sundays and week-days, for the administration of
the sacraments, and for certain other occasions, but the
minister was not absolutely restricted to these forms.
The people took no direct part in the ordinary public

worship, except in the singing of the psalms, and there

177 M

178 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

was no observance of ecclesiastical seasons, as all holy
days except Sunday were abolished.

The pre-Reformation Church in Scotland had become
notoriously corrupt and unpopular, and the breach with
Rome was violent and complete. Nevertheless it was
not the aim of the reformers to break the continuity of
the Church by setting up a new one. The baptism and
ordination of the unreformed Church were both held to
be valid, and it was out of the old Roman priesthood
that the new Protestant ministry arose. The govern-
ment of the reformed Church was for some time in a
very unsettled state. The superintendents had failed
to establish any authority and their office soon fell into
abeyance. In the midst of the confusion a General
Assembly, which met at Perth in 1572, restored, with
the concurrence of Knox, a modified form of Episcopacy,
but the restored Episcopate also proved a failure. The
new bishops, being only the nominees of certain power-
ful noblemen among the lords of the congregation, who
had appropriated the Episcopal revenues, were con-
temptuously nicknamed " Tulchans." A tulchan was
a stuffed calfskin which was placed by the side of a cow
to make her yield more readily to the milking of the
dairymaid. Similarly the nobles received the money
but expected the people to believe that it went to the
bishops. So far the Scottish Church did not object to
Episcopacy in itself, and the strong opposition after-
wards shown to that form of Church government is to
be traced very largely to the influence of the nobles,
who feared that the establishment of a sufficiently
powerful Episcopate might compel them to restore the
Episcopal revenues and other Church property which
they had so dishonestly appropriated at the time of the

RELIGION 179

Reformation. It was in 1592; twenty years after the
death of Knox, and mainly through the influence of
Andrew Melville, that the Presbyterian form of Church
government was first ratified by the Scottish Parliament.

In 1610 steps were taken to restore the historic
Scottish Episcopate and to bring the Church of Scotland
into full communion with the Church of England. By
command of the king three Scottish ministers, the* best
known of whom was John Spottiswoode, afterwards
Archbishop of St. Andrews, proceeded to London to
receive Episcopal consecration from the English bishops.
On their return to Scotland they consecrated other
bishops and thus began the period known as the " First
Episcopacy." No change was made, however, in the
form of public worship and the Book of Common Order
still remained in use. But further changes were forth-
coming, and in 1618 a General Assembly held at Perth
brought the Scottish Church into closer touch with
Catholic usage by adopting, under the guidance of Arch-
bishop Spottiswoode, the following five articles, viz.,
kneeling at holy communion ; private communion for
the sick ; private baptism for weak children ; confirma-
tion by bishop of children not under eight years of age ;
and religious observance of Christmas, Good Friday,
Easter, Ascension, and Whit Sunday.

In 1637 an attempt was made by Charles I. to force
upon the Scottish Church a new liturgy, which is
commonly known as Laud's Prayer Book. It was
modelled on the English Book of Common Prayer and
in the preparation of it Laud had the assistance of John
Maxwell, Bishop of Ross, and James Wedderburn,
Bishop of Dunblane, so that it was to some extent
a Scottish work. This unfortunate attempt gave

i8o SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

rise to a powerful and determined opposition, not
against the reading of prayers as is sometimes supposed,
for the Book of Common Order was still in use, but
against the manner in which the attempted introduc-
tion of the new liturgy was made. In short, the opposi-
tion was political rather than religious, and there are
very few events recorded in our national history more
fateful or far-reaching in results than this attempt to
force a new liturgy upon the Church of Scotland. It
gave the more violent and fanatical section of the people
and of the clergy an excuse for breaking out into
extreme measures and precipitated the great civil war
with all its accompanying disasters.

The opposition to Laud's Prayer Book speedily
developed into a movement against Episcopacy, and in
the following year, 1638, the National Covenant was
signed in the Greyfriars churchyard, Edinburgh, by
nobles, ministers, burgesses, and commons of all sorts,
who pledged themselves in the name of the Lord to
defend Presbyterianism, which they held to be the true
religion, and to resist all innovations ; and in a General
Assembly held in Glasgow in the same year the authority
of the king was set aside, the bishops deposed and
excommunicated, and Presbyterianism re-established.
The proceedings of the Glasgow Assembly amounted to
rebellion, which the king resolved to put down by force.
The king's army met the Covenanters at Dunse Law in
May 1639, where a temporary peace was arranged with-
out bloodshed, but when the civil war began between
the king and the Parliament in England the Covenanters
joined the Puritan majority of the English Parliament
against the king, and in 1643 there was drawn up
another and more aggressive covenant, known as the

RELIGION 181

Solemn League and Covenant, by which Covenanters
and Puritans alike pledged themselves to act together
for the defence of their religion, the extirpation of
popery and prelacy, and the punishment of such as
attempted to form any faction contrary to this league
and covenant. This new covenant was signed in St.
Margaret's, Westminster, by most of the members of
the English Parliament, and by the Assembly of Divines
which had just then commenced their sittings. It was
extensively signed also by the people both in England
and in Scotland. In the south-west of Scotland it was
taken up with wild enthusiasm, but received very little
support north of the Tay.

The Assembly of Divines met in Westminster by
command of the English Parliament " for settling the
government and liturgy of the Church of England,"
and included a few commissioners from Scotland. It
began its sittings in July 1643, and ended them in
February 1648. The Assembly included advocates of
various forms of Church polity to begin with, but the
Presbyterian party predominated in the end and their
labours were set forth in the Westminster Confession of
Faith, the Larger Catechism, the Shorter Catechism,
the Directory of Public Worship, and the metrical ver-
sion of the Psalms still in use among the various Pres-
byterian sects of Scotland. The Book of Common
Prayer in England and the Book of Common Order in
Scotland were set aside ; the Westminster Confession of
Faith became for some time the official creed of both
nations, and the Westminster Directory their guide for
the conduct of public worship.

The Westminster Confession was at first received
with such disfavour by a large proportion of the people

182 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

of Scotland that forty years of grievous strife had to
pass before it was finally adopted as the legal standard
of the Scottish Church. It is the official standard of
that Church still, but in England it was so completely
set aside in the ecclesiastical settlement which followed
the Restoration of King Charles II. in 1660 that it has
gradually come to be regarded as a purely Scottish pro-
duction. It is, however, an English work, and, like it,
many of the Scottish Church customs which English-
men now view with surprise can be traced to the in-
fluence of the Westminster Assembly of Divines.

While the divines were holding their sittings in West-
minster and the civil war raging in England, important
and fateful events were passing in Scotland also. The
great Marquis of Montrose made his heroic but unsuc-
cessful effort to maintain the cause of the king against
the rebel Covenanters in 1644-1645. In England the
military genius of Cromwell was at the same time
triumphing over all obstacles, and the king, finding that
his own cause was fast becoming hopeless, surrendered
himself at Newark into the hands of the Scottish
Covenanter army, which was then serving in England
in alliance with the Parliamentary army. The Scottish
army basely sold him to the English Parliament, by
whom he was brought to an unconstitutional trial and
beheaded at Whitehall on January 30, 1649.

But the political views of the Covenanters, who
recognised the monarchical form of government and
proclaimed Charles II. king after the execution of his
father, were distasteful to Cromwell. So also were
their ideas of Church government, for he was himself
an Independent or Congregationalist. He accordingly
entered Scotland at the head of an army, and having

RELIGION 183

inflicted upon the Covenanters a crushing defeat at
Dunbar in 1650, he suppressed the General Assembly
and took the control of the Church into his own hands,
but made no change in it. His aim was to unite the
two kingdoms into one republic with the same laws and
the same form of Church government. In furtherance
of this policy he treated Scotland with severe but strict
and impartial justice according to his own views, but he
died in 1658, long before his work became consolidated,
and the ecclesiastical affairs of Scotland once more
lapsed into a state of confusion.

The Restoration of King Charles II. in 1660 was
followed by a reaction against the stern and gloomy
rule of the Commonwealth. The Scottish Parliament
met the following year and proceeded at once to undo
the work of the Covenanters and to restore Episcopacy.
Some ministers were again sent to England for Episcopal
consecration, and this began the period which is some-
times known as the " Second Episcopacy." The best
known of the new bishops were Robert Leighton, after-
wards Archbishop of Glasgow, and James Sharp, Arch-
bishop of St. Andrews, who was savagely murdered by
a gang of Covenanters on Magus Moor near St. Andrews
in 1679. Apart from the restoration of the Episcopate
no other change was made. There was no attempt
made to introduce a liturgy or even to enforce the
observance of the Perth articles. This new settlement
was readily accepted in most parts of Scotland, but in
Ayrshire and Galloway, which formed the chief strong-
hold of the Covenanters, it was bitterly opposed, and
there were many ministers who refused to accept it and
were consequently ejected from their parishes. In the
south-west these ministers soon gathered around them-

184 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

selves a large number of fanatical followers, against
whom the Scottish government began an irritating
persecution, until at last the more extreme among them
renounced their allegiance to the king and broke out
into open rebellion. The chief leader of these ex-
tremists was a young man called Richard Cameron,
whose followers afterwards became known as the
Cameronians. This rebellion was put down by John
Graham of Claverhouse, afterwards created Viscount
Dundee— the " Bonnie Dundee " of the Jacobite ballad
— but his task was barely completed when the ecclesi-
astical affairs of Scotland were once more thrown into
violent confusion by the Revolution of 1688.

When the Scottish Convention1 Parliament met in
1689 *ne bishops resolved to continue in their allegi-
ance to King James. This resolution forced William
of Orange to give his support to the Presbyterians,
as they were in favour of the Revolution, and in
the following year, 1690, Presbyterianism was once
more made the established religion of Scotland,
which it has continued to be ever since. The West-
minster Confession of Faith was finally ratified as the
national standard of belief and the right of patrons
to appoint the ministers was taken away and given to
the parishioners. In the same year the General As-
sembly met for the first time since it was suppressed by
Cromwell in 1653. These measures are known as the
Revolution Settlement. Of the Presbyterian ministers
who had been ejected from their livings at the time of
the Restoration there were about sixty still living.
These men were now restored to their old parishes and
in the business of the General Assembly of 1690 they

1 See note p. 7.

RELIGION 185

took the leading part. They were called the " Ante-
diluvians," as having survived the deluge of prelacy
that had swept over the land, and though many of
them were no doubt good and earnest men yet they
were utterly unfit to wield with discretion or fairness
the power which Parliament had placed in their hands.
It will thus be seen that the Revolution Settlement
inherited many elements of controversy and strife and
that the circumstances in which it was effected were not
of such a nature as to ensure permanent harmony and
peace.

No sooner had the government of King James fallen
than the people of the south-west began to " rabble "
or mob their Episcopalian ministers, or curates as they
were generally called. In many cases the rabblings
were arranged for Christmas in order to show their con-
tempt for Episcopalian festivals, and before long about
two hundred curates were thus ejected or " outed "
with more or less violence. When Parliament and the
General Assembly got to work many more were ejected
in other parts of Scotland (as well as in the south-west)
for refusing to pray publicly for King William and
Queen Mary. To the General Assembly, dominated
by the Antediluvians, Parliament entrusted the task of
purging the Church of all " scandalous and erroneous "
ministers. This description was held to be applicable
to all curates, and the task was taken up with such
misguided zeal and untempered truculence that the
Scottish Parliament eventually found it necessary to
interfere, and in 1693 there was passed an Act of Tolera-
tion, by which all Episcopalian ministers who would
take the oath of allegiance to the new king, subscribe
the Confession of Faith, and conform to Presbytery

186 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

were to be allowed to remain in possession of their
livings. The clergy who refused to accept this settle-
ment were called non-jurors, because they refused to
swear the oath of allegiance. In all about six hundred
curates were ejected, while about three hundred were
allowed to remain undisturbed, partly because they took
the qualifying oaths, but more frequently because the
loyalty and devotion of the people made it impossible
for Assembly or Presbytery to interfere with them.
Twenty years after the Revolution, that is about the
time of the union, there were one hundred and sixty-
five Episcopalian ministers still in possession of parish
churches and in many cases living at peace with their
Presbyterian neighbours, with whom they sometimes
shared by turns the use of the churches. To the
ordinary man, who took only a superficial view of
things, the difference between the two forms of worship
was but slight. The Episcopalian congregation stood
during prayer while the Presbyterians sat, and the
prayers of both were extempore, as only very few
curates used any liturgy. The Episcopalians said the
Lord's Prayer and the Apostles' Creed and repeated
the doxology at the close of psalm, chapter, and sermon.
All these were omitted by the Presbyterians. At the
baptism of a child the Episcopalian father had to
repeat the Apostles' Creed, the Presbyterian to express
his belief in the Confession of Faith. The communion
was received by both sitting. The Episcopalians
usually preached a sermon on Christmas Day and
administered the communion on Easter Day or on
Whit Sunday; the Presbyterians observed no Church
festivals. Both Episcopalians and Presbyterians en-
joined a reverent observance of Sunday, and both had

RELIGION 187

their kirk sessions and presbyteries, and also their
synods, of which in the case of the Episcopalians the
bishop was moderator.

To the north of the Tay the people clung loyally to
their old curates, who neither conformed to Presbytery
nor took the oath of allegiance, and a whole generation
had to pass away before it was found possible to settle
many Presbyterian ministers among them. In many
cases the new minister had to be intruded upon the
people by force of arms, but this was not always the
result of any strong or special attachment to the Episco-
palian form of worship, which differed so little from the
Presbyterian form, but rather of their loyalty and
devotion to their old Gaelic curates and their dislike of
the Lowland Covenanters, and therefore when the old
curates died out the transition from the one form of
worship to the other was often easier than might have
been expected.

In 1712 an Act was passed by the British Parliament
securing toleration for the Scottish Episcopalians, but
the Rebellion of 1715, in which they openly joined the
Jacobites, was followed by a renewal of repressive legis-
lation. The severity of the repressive laws was again
increased after the Rebellion of 1745, when it was made
illegal for a non-juring clergyman to conduct service
with a congregation of more than four in addition to his
own family. A layman attending an illegal service
became liable to penalties, and the offending minister
was subject to six months' imprisonment for his first
offence and to banishment for life for the second. In
1748 the laws were made still more severe and the
clergyman's family had now to be included in the four
which used to be permitted for a congregation. Their

188 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

meeting houses were burned or destroyed, and men in
Scottish orders were forbidden to act as chaplains in
private families, and were not allowed to qualify them-:
selves by taking the oath of allegiance. The object of
the government was clearly to exterminate the Scottish
Episcopal party, but in spite of persecution the clergy
continued not only to exist but to hold meetings and to
possess the confidence and devotion of a large and loyal
following. When Prince Charles died in 1788, and his
brother Henry renounced the intention of claiming the
British crown, the non-jurors offered to recognise George
III. as their king and to swear allegiance to him. This
was followed by the repeal of the penal statutes in 1792,
but the Scottish clergy were still prohibited from hold-
ing a benefice in England or even officiating in an
English church. It was not until 1864 that these dis-
abilities were finally removed and Scottish Episcopal
orders became recognised by the laws of the British
Parliament as well as by the Church of England.

As already stated, the Episcopalians had no liturgy of
their own at the time of the Revolution. Although
they were in communion with the Church of England,
they disliked the English Prayer Book, partly because
it was not a Scottish work, and partly because it was
used by the English tax-gatherers and other hated
officials who had flocked into Scotland after the union.
There was, however, a party which might be described
as anti-ritualistic that favoured the use of the English
Prayer Book, and a ritualistic party that desired Laud's
Prayer book with certain ritual " usages " of a Catholic
character. There were difficulties also about the
manner of electing bishops. The ritualistic party
wanted diocesan bishops elected by the Church itself,

RELIGION 189

while the opposite party were in favour of a college of
bishops without settled districts and appointed by their
acknowledged' king, James. These questions led to
some keen and bitter controversy, but there was a
general preference shown in the end for diocesan
bishops, and for Laud's Prayer Book as being to
some extent a Scottish work, ordered for use by the
Scottish King Charles I., and a slightly modified edition
of it was published which came partly into use in 1724.
The final revision now known as the Scottish Communion
Office was made in 1784, and for other services than the
communion the English Prayer Book began to be used.
Since then the English Communion Office has come into
general use in the Scottish Episcopal Church.

It is interesting to record that the great Episcopal
Church in America derives its succession from the
Scottish Church through Samuel Seabury, who was
consecrated Bishop of Connecticut by three Scottish
bishops at Aberdeen in 1784. This was followed in
1789 by the adoption of the Scottish Communion Office
for use in the American Church. Of the many sects
whose aims and doings make up the religious history of
Scotland since the Reformation, there has been none
more genuinely national than the Scottish Episcopal
Church. It was the one that owed least to English and
foreign influence in the development of its religious and
political ideals, which were essentially national and
patriotic, and to which it clung with a devotion so loyal
and unselfish as to form one of the most pleasing
features of the ecclesiastical history of Scotland.

Although the Scottish Episcopalians were such loyal
supporters of the Stuart dynasty, yet the Stuarts them-
selves clung to the Roman Catholic Church with an

igo SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

unwavering and fanatical devotion. In Scotland, how-
ever, that Church had little or no influence. In the
south it had practically no open adherents, but in the
central and more inaccessible parts of the Highlands it
had a numerous following under the protection of the
powerful house of Gordon and various Highland chiefs,
in whose territories Roman Catholic priests moved
about with perfect freedom, in spite of the repressive
laws that existed against them. Hence there was then
and there always has been a numerous sprinkling of
Roman Catholics, many of them of old and honourable
standing, to be found in some of the more inaccessible
districts of the central and western Highlands.

It remains now to trace the course of events among
the Presbyterians who became the Established Church
of Scotland by the Revolution Settlement of 1690. By
this settlement the strictest sect among the Presby-
terians obtained the ascendency, and immediately set
up an ecclesiastical tyranny in which the principle of
toleration had no place. They claimed the right to
interfere with everything from the government of the
kingdom down to the private affairs of domestic life and
revived in all their barbarity the laws against witch-
craft which had been allowed to lapse into abeyance in
the time of the Episcopacy. Although King William
himself was strongly favourable to religious toleration,
his government had to countenance those extremists as
being the chief supporters of the Revolution in Scotland,
and though at one time a serious breach threatened to
arise between themselves and the king with regard to
the form of the oath of allegiance which the clergy
were asked to take, yet their ascendency continued in
ecclesiastical affairs until towards the end of Queen

RELIGION 191

Anne's reign. The trouble about the oath arose under
the following circumstances. The Scots Parliament of
1693 demanded from the Episcopalian ministers an
oath of allegiance to William and Mary, which most
of them refused to take as already stated. In this
the Parliament had the support of the Presbyterian
ministers, but when Parliament, influenced by the tory
party, insisted that the Presbyterian ministers also
should take the oath, they vehemently objected to take
an oath which required their king to be a member of
the Church of England. In the end the form of the
oath was changed, and the difficulty overcome largely
by the sagacity and tact of William Carstairs, the most
notable ecclesiastic and statesman in Scotland during
King William's reign and afterwards Principal of Edin-
burgh University. Carstairs, though a strict and stout
Presbyterian himself, nevertheless used his influence
with the Church to promote the cause of peace and
moderation, but the oath caused much quarrelling
among the Presbyterian ministers themselves between
those who took it and those who refused to do so.

The return of the tory party to power in 1710 was
followed in 1712 by the Act of Toleration already re-
ferred to and by the famous Act for the restoration of
lay ecclesiastical patronage. It is generally asserted
that the object of this Act was to strengthen the
Jacobite interest among the ministers of the Church by
making them dependent on the tory and Jacobite
aristocracy rather than on the common people and
middle classes whose sympathies were mainly whig, but
the reasons given in the preamble of the Act itself are
of a very different nature. When patronage was
abolished in 1690 Parliament decreed that every patron

19? SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

should receive from the heritors of the parish 600 merks
{£33 6s. 8d.) as compensation for the privilege which he
was losing. In very few parishes, however, was this
compensation paid, and the patrons consequently
refused to give up their rights. The avowed object of
the Act, then, was to put an end to " the great heats
and divisions " which usually arose at the election of
ministers and to safeguard the rights of the patrons who
had not been paid the legal compensation. Where this
compensation had been paid the Act provided that the
patronage should remain in the hands of the parishioners.
The Patronage Act of 1712 has sometimes been regarded
as the chief cause of the discord and strife which have
been such an unfortunate feature of the Presbyterianism
of Scotland, but the elements of discord and strife
existed apart from the Act and were bound sooner or
later to become prominent. The stricter Presbyterians
held that the Patronage Act was a breach of the Treaty
of Union and never admitted its validity. From year
to year they raised their protest against it in the General
Assembly, and constantly attributed to it divisions and
troubles which had their origin in totally different
causes. At the time of its passing, however, it was
hardly looked upon as a grievance at all, and met with
far less opposition than the Toleration Act of the same
year.

Nevertheless the Patronage Act had important and
far-reaching results. The men chosen for preferment by
the patrons were as a rule of better education, wider
culture, and more tolerant views than the stricter sect
which at first formed the majority of the ministers. By
degrees these men drew into the Church a large number
of the landed aristocracy who had hitherto been Episco-

REV. ALEXANDER CARLYLE, IVP.

RELIGION 193

palian. As a result, partly of this change, and partly
of the influence of those Episcopalians who continued, as
we have already found, to hold their livings in the
Established Church after the Revolution, there arose
within the Church two distinct parties of widely differ-
ing views. There was .this new semi-prelatic party,
commonly called the " Legalists " or " Moderates,"
and the old strictly Calvinistic and Puritan party known
as the " Evangelicals " or " Highfliers." Thencefor-
ward the history of the Church of Scotland is the history
of the protracted struggle between these two parties.
It is not the object of this book to pronounce an opinion
upon the merits of that struggle from any religious point
of view but merely to consider it as it affected the course
of the secular history of the nation.

In 1718 an old English puritanic book called The
Marrow of Modern Divinity, which had been first
published in 1646 with the approval of the Westminster
Assembly of Divines, was republished by some
prominent evangelicals, one of whom was Thomas
Boston, minister of Ettrick in the county of Selkirk.
The extreme baldness of its Calvinism was very dis-
tasteful to the " Moderates," and through their in-
fluence the book was condemned in 1720. Thus the
moderates became the leading party and continued to
shape and guide the policy of the Church until near the
close of the century. The difference between the
moderates and the evangelicals was quite irreconcilable.
While the evangelicals looked upon themselves as the
only true custodians of the purity of the orthodox faith,
and professed to regard most of the temporal interests
of life as being outside the sphere of true religion, if not
indeed opposed to it, the moderates endeavoured to

N

194 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

maintain order and discipline within the Church rather
than a fanatical zeal for orthodoxy. Their ideal virtue
was " sanctified common sense," and they concerned
themselves with the whole field of human interest and
regarded the advancement of the material welfare of
the nation as a Christian duty. The tendency of their
teaching was broad and tolerant, their sermons were
frequently moral discourses on the practical duties of
life, and they did not forbid a rational indulgence in the
ordinary pleasures of life. They strove to encourage
the cultivation of intellectual and literary attainments,
and among their ministers there were men who rose to
the highest eminence in every department of literature
and learning. The moderates attained their highest
influence under the moderatorship of the Rev. Dr.
Alexander Carlyle of Inveresk in 1770.

The difference between these two great ecclesiastical
parties did not lessen as time passed, and to the evan-
gelicals the question of patronage was one that supplied
a perpetual grievance. The moderates preferred the
choosing of ministers by patrons rather than the excite-
ment and strife which would be sure to arise in connec-
tion with the election of ministers by the parishioners.
When a patron neglected to present to a vacant living,
the duty of filling the vacancy devolved upon the
Church, which, through this and various other causes,
came in course of time to have a large amount of patron-
age of her own, and the question arose how this patron-
age was to be exercised. In 1732 the General Assembly
decreed that in such cases the minister should be chosen
by a majority of the elders and Protestant heritors of
the parish. This measure was strongly disapproved of
by the evangelicals, who claimed a voice for the con-

RELIGION 195

gregations in the election of their own ministers, and
the Rev. Ebenezer Erskine, minister of Stirling, preach-
ing shortly afterwards before the Synod of Perth and
Stirling, denounced its authors so vehemently that he
was eventually censured by the General Assembly.
For refusing to acknowledge this censure the Assembly
resolved by the casting vote of the moderator that
Erskine and three others who joined with him should
be deposed. Without waiting for the sentence of
deposition, which, indeed, was not passed just then,
these ministers seceded from the Church, and formed
themselves into the " Associate Presbytery " at Gairney
Bridge near Kinross in December 1733. The Church
made many efforts to heal the breach and tried every
possible means of conciliation, but the seceders were
quite intractable. Though they refused to hold com-
munion with the ministers of the Church they neverthe-
less continued to occupy their old pulpits and to draw
their stipends until at last they were finally deposed
in 1740.

It was not long before the seceders found occasion
for bitter difference among themselves. A controversy
arose among them as to whether it was right for a man
assuming municipal office to take a burgher oath in
which the Established Church was described as the
" true religion." On this point they divided in 1747
into two sects, the burghers or the " Associate Synod "
and the anti-burghers or " General Associate Synod."
The burghers were willing to take the oath on the under-
standing that they expressed approval of the Established
Church only in so far as it was true. The anti-burghers
held that the oath could not be taken at all without
sin. The Rev. Ebenezer Erskine and his brother Ralph

196 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

held the burgher view and were consequently excom-
municated by the anti-burghers. But the process of
sub-division did not end even there, and before long the
burghers became divided into the " Old Lights," who
adhered to the literal interpretation of the Solemn
League and Covenant, and the " New Lights," who pro-
fessed to see it in a new light which made it no longer
necessary for them to hold that the civil magistrate
should interfere to punish religious errors. The anti-
burghers also quarrelled among themselves as to
whether the sacred elements in holy communion should
be " lifted " before the consecration prayer or after, and
so became divided into " Lifters " and " Anti-lifters "
who would hold no intercourse with each other. These
different sects of seceders were quite as bitterly opposed
to each other as they were to the Established Church,
and their quarrels and disputes form a curious and pain-
ful feature of the ecclesiastical history of Scotland in
the second half of the eighteenth century. In the time
of Robert Burns we find the moderates called " New
Lights " and the evangelicals " Old Lights."

While the disputes of the burghers and anti-burghers
were at their height another secession from the
Established Church occurred, and this time also the
ostensible cause was the question of patronage. An
unpopular man having been presented to the parish of
Inverkeithing in Fifeshire, the presbytery of Dunferm-
line refused to ordain him against the wish of the
parishioners. For this act of insubordination one
member of the presbytery, the Rev. Thomas Gillespie,
minister of Carnock, was chosen for punishment and
deposed by the General Assembly in 1752, though
he was no more guilty of insubordination than the

RELIGION 197

other members who formed the majority of the
presbytery. Gillespie was a saintly and amiable man
of high character and had many sympathisers and
followers, who in 1761 formed themselves into the
" Relief Synod," so called because they sought relief
from the laws of patronage. This sect did not cherish
the same bitterness towards the Established Church as
the seceders did. They even desired to return to the
Church, but their approaches were rejected. The Dis-
senters soon became a powerful element in the life of
the nation and they had many sympathisers among the
evangelicals within the Church, but they dissipated
their energies largely on fine-drawn disputes about
orthodoxy, leaving the Established Church all the more
free to continue her efforts for the practical and material
as well as the spiritual well-being of the nation.

It was the good fortune of the Established Church at
this time to have among her clergy, both moderate and
evangelical, a number of men of great talent and
eminence, who knew how to overlook differences of
opinion in working for the common good of their coun-
try, and it is a significant comment on the spirit of
brotherhood which prevailed within the Church in the
time of the moderate ascendency that when Dr. William
Robertson, the historian, was minister of the Grey-
friars Church, Edinburgh, and leader of the moderate
party, his colleague, Dr. John Erskine, was at the same
time leader of the evangelicals. These two men
differed greatly in their views and were leaders of
opposite parties without allowing the duties which
they discharged in common to suffer and without losing
their personal regard or respect for each other.

It was in connection with an attempt to repeal the

198 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

laws against the Roman Catholics that the ascendency
of the great moderate party encountered its first check.
By those laws they were forbidden to educate their own
children, exercise their worship, or hold any property,
but in practice these cruel laws were to a large extent
overlooked. In England the Roman Catholic dis-
abilities were relieved in 1778. In the next General
Assembly the moderates moved in favour of similar
relief for the Roman Catholics of Scotland also, but this
was opposed by the evangelical party, and the popular
feeling against the Roman Catholics became roused to
such a pitch of excitement that all thoughts of repeal
had to be abandoned. With this outbreak of popular
feeling against the Roman Catholics there was unfor-
tunately a revival of party rancour and ecclesiastical
strife within the Church herself, and the influence of the
moderate party perceptibly began to decline.

With the decline of that influence patrons ceased to
exercise the same care as formerly in the choice of
ministers, while the patronage of the crown was fre-
quently exercised on mere political grounds. Against
such abuses the moderate leaders remonstrated, but
unfortunately in vain. The opposite party found in
these abuses a good opportunity for reviving the old
feeling against patronage and asserting their claim to
spiritual independence of the civil courts. Under the
leadership of Dr. Andrew Thomson and Dr. Thomas
Chalmers that party quickly rose into popularity and
influence, and events gradually began to shape them-
selves into the great controversy which led up to the
Disruption of 1843.

That controversy is known as the " Ten Years' Con-
flict," and the ostensible and central subject of dispute

RELIGION 199

was the question of patronage, but the real issue at
stake was the so-called spiritual independence of the
Church, or whether the Church was to be subject to the
jurisdiction of the civil courts. It was not at all a new
question but one that had cropped up in the past in one
form or another in most of, the countries of Europe.
The moderate party upheld the rights of the patrons
and the authority of the civil courts. The evangelicals
denied the authority of the civil courts in ecclesiastical
matters, and maintained that parishioners ought to
have the right to choose their own ministers. The
power of admitting a presentee to a benefice had always
rested with the presbytery, and if any reasonable
objections could be raised against him the presbytery
had the power to reject him. This was not enough for
the General Assembly where the evangelical party was
now in the majority, and in 1834 they passed an Act
giving to the majority of the congregation the absolute
right to reject a presentee without assigning any cause
whatever. This was called the Veto Act. It claimed
for the Church the right to set aside an Act of Parlia-
ment and soon brought her into collision with the civil
authority.

In 1834, the same year in which the Veto Act was
passed, the Rev. Robert Young was presented by the
Earl of Kinnoull to the parish of Auchterarder, in
Perthshire, but when the presbytery, which bears the
same name as the parish, proceeded to his settlement
they found that a large majority of the congregation
were opposed to him. No exception was taken either
to his character or to his teaching, but in obedience to
the Veto Act the presbytery refused to proceed with
the settlement. The presentee and the patron then

200 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

appealed against the presbytery to the Court of Session,
and the case was eventually carried to the House of
Lords. The decision of both tribunals was against the
presbytery, and the Veto Act was declared illegal, as
the General Assembly had no power to change the
statute law of the country.

In the General Assembly of 1839 the moderates pro-
posed a motion for the repeal of the Veto Act, but the
proposal was rejected by the majority who were now
called the non-intrusionists. They next appealed to
the government for legislation to support their claims,
while the moderate party maintained that the first
thing to do was to vindicate the supremacy of the civil
authority as the only true safeguard of civil and religious
liberty. Meantime there occurred another serious colli-
sion between the Church and the civil court. In 1837
the Rev. John Edwards having been presented to the
parish of Marnoch, in Banffshire, the presbytery of
Strathbogie resolved by decree of the Court of Session to
proceed with the settlement in spite of the veto of the
congregation. For acting thus in obedience to the
Court of Session, the ministers — seven in number —
who formed the majority were deposed by the General
Assembly, but as they held the sentence of deposition
to be illegal they continued their ministrations as usual
and refused to give way to the ministers sent by the
Assembly to supersede them. The Strathbogie incident
was made an occasion to arouse the feelings of the
Highlands, where the non-intrusionist cause was taken
up by the two greatest Gaelic preachers of their genera-
tion, the Rev. John Macdonald of Ferintosh and the
Rev. John Macrae of Knockbain. Both parishes are
in the neighbourhood of Dingwall, which became the

RELIGION 201

Highland centre of the movement. The appeal made
to the religious enthusiasm of the Highlands met with
a ready and all but unanimous response.

There was yet another point on which the Church and
the civil courts came into serious collision. Through
the energy and the labours of Dr. Chalmers about two
hundred chapels-of-ease, known as parliamentary
churches, had lately been established throughout the
country, but as the ministers of those chapels were not
parish ministers they had no seats in the Church courts,
that is, the Presbytery, the Synod, and _ the General
Assembly. There was already a court which had the
power to form parishes, but the General Assembly,
ignoring this court, and without referring the question
to the presbyteries, which they ought to have done
by the Barrier Act,1 declared that the chapel-of-ease
ministers should henceforth rank as parish ministers
and have seats in the Church courts. There were men
even among the evangelicals who protested against
this hasty resolution as a dangerous innovation, and it
was not long before a test case was brought into the
civil court. The presbytery of Irvine, in Ayrshire, pro-
ceeded to divide the parish of Stewarton into two, but
was interdicted by the patron. Litigation ensued and
the Court of Session pronounced the action of the pres-
bytery illegal as the General Assembly had not the
power to form new parishes. By this decision the

1 The Barrier Act provides that any proposed change or Act
after being approved by the General Assembly must be remitted
to the presbyteries for their consideration, and the approval of a
majority of the presbyteries must be reported to the next
General Assembly and confirmed by that court before the pro-
posed change or Act can become a standing law of the
Church.

202 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

chapel-of-ease ministers were deprived of their seats in
the Church courts.

It was fast becoming clear that matters would soon
have to reach a climax. The popular party, defeated in
all their efforts to ignore the civil authority, was begin-
ning to prepare for separation, and as a final proposal to
the government the General Assembly of 1842 passed
by a majority of two to one a statement of their griev-
ances and demands known as " The Claim of Right."
In due time the claim of right came before Parliament,
but only to be rejected by an overwhelming majority.
Sir Robert Peel spoke of it as a departure from " prin-
ciples which are essential to the civil and religious
liberties of the country," and both sides of the House
denounced it as unconstitutional and incapable of being
entertained. As the absolute supremacy of the civil
law is universally recognised to be the fundamental
basis of all civilised society the rejection of the claim of
right by parliament was the only thing that could
reasonably have been expected. " No government
could have satisfied claims which in their very essence
were inconsistent with the supremacy of civil laws."

Meantime the non-intrusionist party were preparing
for the contemplated separation. They had pledged
themselves to leave the Established Church if their
claims were not granted by Parliament, and were
making the necessary preparations for the adequate
support of the ministers who were about to leave their
benefices. In this they were liberally supported by
many of the wealthier laymen of the country.

The General Assembly met on May 18, 1843. The
Marquis of Bute was Lord High Commissioner, and as
he had no message to deliver from the crown complying

. RELIGION 203

with the demands set forth in the claim' of right, the
retiring moderator, Dr. David Welsh, instead of pro-
ceeding in the usual way to the election of his successor,
read a protest justifying the course which his party had
decided to adopt and calling upon the faithful to with-
draw to a separate place of meeting. Having finished
his protest, the moderator walked out of the hall
followed by a large number of ministers and elders, who
formed themselves into a procession and marched to
another hall which had been prepared for the occasion
at Canonmills on the outskirts of the city. Dr.
Chalmers was acclaimed moderator, and they declared
themselves to be the Free Church of Scotland. The
attitude taken up by the new Church was clearly set
forth by the moderator in his opening address:
" Though we quit the Establishment, we go out on the
Establishment principle; we quit a vitiated Establish-
ment, we would rejoice in returning to a pure one. To
express it otherwise — we are the advocates for a national
recognition and national support of religion — and we
are not Voluntaries."

The disruption was now an accomplished fact and out
of the twelve hundred and three ministers who had
formed the clergy of the United Church four hundred
and fifty-one joined the new Church. They were
liberally supported by a large and enthusiastic follow-
ing at home, and received not only sympathy and ap-
probation, but in many cases material support from
England, Ireland, and the colonies. The sacrifice they
were supposed to have made in quitting their benefices
was in many cases therefore much more apparent than
real, and the popularity they gained was so great that
in many parts of the country it required much more

204 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

courage to remain in the Established Church than to
quit it. Those who remained were in many places
subjected to much bitter annoyance and petty persecu-
tion, the parish minister being looked upon as " the one
excommunicated man of the district, the man with
whom no one was to join in prayer," while the parish
church was "to be avoided as an impure and unholy
place."

In none of the secessions that had taken place was
there any desire expressed to sever the connection of
the Church with the state or to deprive her of her en-
dowments. The usual contention was that the Church
was departing from the principles of the Covenant,
which emphatically asserted the duty of the state to
interfere in the religious affairs of the subject. The
only complaint against the state was that it did not
support their side of the questions in dispute. But as
time passed and new ministers arose, who found that
their churches were able to exist on the voluntary con-
tributions of their supporters, they gradually adopted
voluntaryism as one of their principles and laid it down
as a dogma that it was sinful for a Church to possess
endowments. They forgot that nearly all the endow-
ments of the Church were voluntary in their origin, and
that a trust fund is practically but another name for an
endowment. Thus began the movement for the dis-
establishment and disendowment of the Church. The
common policy supplied by the adoption of voluntaryism
as a principle in opposition to the Erastianism x of the
Established Church had the effect of drawing the seced-
ing sects closer together, and in 1820 the burghers and
the anti-burghers united under the name of the United

1 See Note, p. 5 1 .

RELIGION 205

Secession Synod. In 1847 the United Secession joined
with the Relief Synod under the name of the United
Presbyterian Church, which soon became a large and
flourishing body with voluntaryism for one of its funda-
mental principles. In 1876 the Reformed Presbyterians,
who were the representatives of the old Cameronians
who refused to accept the Revolution Settlement, joined
the Free Church. But from all these unions there were
dissentients, and there are still congregations known as
the Cameronians, the Original Seceders, and the Relief
Connection.

We have already found that the Free Church emphati-
cally disclaimed all sympathy or connection with the
voluntaries, but as the influence of the great Dr.
Chalmers died out and the old associations with the
Established Church became fewer and fewer, the prin-
ciples of voluntaryism began rapidly to gain ground in
the Free Church also, and in 1900 it joined with the
United Presbyterian Church under the name of the
United Free Church. Into this union a small minority
of the ministers of the Free Church, chiefly Highlanders,
declined to enter and were treated with great harshness
by the newly-formed Church. As measures were being
taken to eject them from their churches and manses
they appealed to the law for protection. The case was
finally carried to the House of Lords, and there in 1904
the ministers forming the minority which had refused to
enter into the union were declared to be the true Free
Church and the lawful owners of all the Free Church
trust property. This decision was followed in 1905 by an
Act of Parliament to provide for an equitable distribution
of the property between the legal Free Church, that is the
anti-unionist minority, and the United Free Church.

206 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

Meanwhile the Established Church gradually over-
came the difficulties in which the disruption of 1843 had
placed her, and her course since then has been one of
progress, expansion, and much usefulness. Patronage
was abolished either wisely or unwisely by Act of Parlia-
ment in 1874, and ministers are now elected by the
votes of the congregation.

We have thus traced in outline the history of Scot-
land from the Treaty of Union with England two cen-
turies ago down to the present time. We have seen
how fully that great legislative measure has been justi-
fied by its results. We have seen Scotland gradually
rise from a state of disaster, misfortune, exhaustion, and
poverty to a position of great power and influence in the
affairs, not only of the British Empire, but of the whole
civilised world. We have seen the Scottish members of
the first half of the eighteenth century complaining of
inability to hold their own in the united Parliament and
clamouring for a repeal of the union, but in the second
half of that century we find them occupying some of the
highest and most influential positions in the state, and
more than reconciled to a union which had been the
means of providing them with so much wider a scope for
the exercise of their talents and of bringing within their
reach the triumphs and the prizes which the Imperial
Parliament had to offer. The allied nation that is con-
scious of its own strength to act, and of its own power to
influence, does not clamour for home rule. We have
seen how Jacobitism, largely as the result of reaction
against the union, continued to be a political force in
Scotland so much longer than in England. We have
traced the struggle between the Jacobites and the

RELIGION 207

Revolution whigs, which ended in the final defeat of the
former on Culloden Moor, and then the rise to power of
the tory party largely through the influence of such men
as Henry Dundas and Sir Walter Scott. We have seen
the heroic part played by the Scottish soldier throughout
a long and dreadful struggle in which our very existence
as a nation was more than once at stake until the crown-
ing triumph of Waterloo raised us to the first place of
power among the nations of the world. We have seen
how the passing of the Reform Bill of 1832 was followed
by a whig ascendency which has practically continued
until the present time, to the great benefit of the middle
and commercial classes. We have traced the rise of
Scottish literature from rude ballads to a greatness of
world-wide fame. We have traced the development of
Scottish industry and commerce from small and un-
fortunate beginnings to the greatest industrial achieve-
ments and commercial prosperity. We have traced
the growth of her agriculture from the most primitive
conditions to the highest point of scientific perfection.
We have seen the steady progress of education, science,
and art, accompanied by a marked and continuous im-
provement in all the amenities of life. We have seen
how the great moderate party arose in the Church with
their " sanctified common sense," their scholarship and
culture, their broad and tolerant religious principles, and
their patriotic interest in all that concerned the temporal
as well as the spiritual well-being of their countrymen.
We have also seen how a revival of the stern and un-
compromising spirit of the Puritan and Covenanter
times brought about the disruption of the Church of
Scotland, how this disruption led to developments
which could hardly have been expected by its leaders,

208 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

and how the Established Church has recovered from the
blow then received, maintaining her religious ideals and
aims, her culture, her tolerance, her usefulness, and her
touch with the national life and the national interests.
These various political and religious events and move-
ments must be regarded by different men from different
points of view, and opinion is divided and must continue
divided as to how far they are to be regarded as bene-
ficial or otherwise, but there can be no difference of
opinion as to the progress accomplished and the great-
ness achieved by Scotland during the period that has
elapsed since the union with England, neither can there
be any difference as to the grandeur of the heritage
handed down to us by our Scottish countrymen whose
names have gained so noble and so honourable a place
in the annals of the great British Empire during the
last two centuries.

CHRONICLE OF PRINCIPAL EVENTS

1688 The Revolution.

1689 Battle of Killiecrankie. Death of Viscount Dundee.

1690 Revolution Settlement of Church of Scotland.
1692 Massacre of Glencoe.

1695 Darien Company formed. Bank of Scotland founded.

1696 Parish schools established by Act of Parliament.
1698 Darien expedition sailed from Leith.

1700 Darien colonists surrendered to the Spaniards.

1701 Scottish Parliament vindicates Darien Company.
Scottish Habeas Corpus passed; colliers and salters

excluded from its provisions.

1702 Accession of Queen Anne.

Commissioners appointed by both Parliaments to
treat of union, but they could not agree.

1703 Scottish Parliament meets, Duke of Queensberry

royal commissioner.
Act of Security passed, but commissioner instructed
to refuse to give it the royal assent.

1704 Act of Security passed again, and receives royal

assent. English Parliament replied by enacting
that after Christmas 1705 Scotsmen in England
should be treated as aliens.
Professors of Latin and Greek appointed at Glasgow
University.

1705 Act passed appointing commissioners to treat of

union.
Execution of Captain Green of the Worcester.

1706 Union Commissioners meet at the Cockpit, West-

minster, April 16.
Scottish Parliament assembles for the last time,
October 3.

1707 Act of Union passed by Scottish Parliament, Jan-

uary 16.

209 o

210 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

1707 Act having passed English Parliament received the

royal assent, March 25, to come into force on

May 1.
Scottish Parliament dissolved, April 28.
Lieutenant-Colonel Hooke's mission from France.

1708 Forbin's expedition.

Treason laws assimilated to those of England.
Regenting abolished at Edinburgh University and

Professors of Latin and Greek appointed.
Lord Haddington introduced rye-grass and clover.

1709 Great famine.

1 7 10 Tories come into power.

James Meikle of Saltoun introduced fanners, but they
did not come into general use until much later.

171 1 Greenshields' appeal to the House of Lords.

17 12 Act of Toleration for Episcopalians.
Church patronage restored.

17 13 Peace of Utrecht.
Malt tax levied.

Repeal of union proposed in the House of Lords by

Lord Findlater.
Pensions given to Highland chiefs to secure their

attachment to the Jacobite cause.

1 7 14 Death of Queen Anne and accession of George I.

1 7 15 Clan Act to encourage loyalty in Scotland.

Earl of Mar raises the standard of rebellion at Brae-
mar, September 6.
Battle of Sheriff muir, November 13.
Surrender of the Jacobites at Preston, November 13.

1 7 16 Forfeited Estates Commissioners appointed.
Duke of Argyll disgraced, restored to favour 17 19.

1 7 18 Edinburgh C our ant founded in whig interest.

First vessel owned by a Glasgow merchant crossed
the Atlantic.

1719 Battle of Glenshiel, June 9.

Act enforcing statute labour for making roads.
General Assembly passed an Act condemning

smuggling, also in 1736, 1744.
Legislation against Episcopalians.

CHRONICLE OF PRINCIPAL EVENTS 211

1720 Carts beginning to be used about this time.
Tea-drinking coming into fashion.
Caledonian Mercury founded in tory interest.
Boston's Fourfold State published.
The Marrow Controversy begun.

1723 Society of Improvers of Knowledge of Agriculture

founded.

1724 Wade sent to survey the Highlands: 260 miles of

road made between 1726 and 1737.
Modified edition of Laud's Prayer Book published.
Walpole proposed tax of 6d. per barrel on ale.
The tax on ale had effect of increasing consumption of

whisky, which before this was little known.
Experiments, apparently unsuccessful, made in

potato and turnip growing by Cockburn of

Ormiston in Haddingtonshire.

1725 Shawfield riots in Glasgow.

Office of Secretary for Scotland suspended until 1742.

Duke of Argyll, his brother Lord Islay, and Duncan
Forbes of Culloden assume guidance of Scottish
affairs.

Disarmament Act for the Highlands.

Formation of six independent companies (480 men) to
preserve order on the Highland border.

Crofter evictions and enclosures, which were destroyed
by the people, attempted in Nithsdale and Gallo-
way.

Conclusion of labours of the Forfeited Estates Com-
missioners.

Allan Ramsay opened a circulating library in Edin-
burgh.

1726 Thomson's Winter published.

Efforts made to improve study of medicine and
surgery in Edinburgh.

1727 Death of George I.

Board of Manufactures established.

Royal Bank of Scotland founded.

Last witch-burning in Scotland.

Regenting discontinued at Glasgow University.

212 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

1729 Professor Francis Hutcheson began to lecture in
English instead of Latin at Glasgow Uni-
versity.
Edinburgh Royal Infirmary started in a small house
by efforts of George Drummond.

1733 Secession from the Established Church, under the
Rev. Ebenezer Erskine and three other ministers,
who formed the Associate Presbytery at Gairney
Bridge. Erskine was not formally deposed by the
Church until 1740.

1735 Potato cultivation commenced about this time, but

did not become common until about 1750.
Society for Encouraging Art, Science, and Literature
offer prizes for tree-planting.

1736 Porteous Riots in Edinburgh.
Act for burning witches abolished.

Allan Ramsay attempts to open a theatre or playhouse

in Edinburgh.
Edinburgh Royal Infirmary buildings opened.

1739 Hume's Treatise on Human Nature published.
Turnip cultivation began about this time, but did not

become common for many years.

1740 War of the Austrian Succession (1 740-1 748).
Jacobite leaders formed an Association pledging

themselves to rise in arms as soon as help came

from abroad.
Duncan Forbes proposed to raise Highland regiments,

but government refused assent.
The Black Watch enrolled at Aberfeldy.
A year of famine.

1 741 Act enabling Court of Session to fix price at which

corn might be imported.

1742 A religious " Revival " commenced in the parish of

Cambuslang, Lanarkshire, in which an active
part was taken by the Rev. George Whitefield of
the Church of England, one of the founders of
Methodism.

1743 John, Duke of Argyll, died, September 3.
Last wolf killed in Scotland in Morayshire.

CHRONICLE OF PRINCIPAL EVENTS 213

1744 Broad Bottom Ministry formed and Henry Pelham

Prime Minister until his death in 1754.

French expedition in support of the Jacobites dis-
persed by a storm in the Channel.

Heritors of East Lothian complain of the increasing
use of tea.

1745 Prince Charles Edward landed in Moidart, July 25.
Battle of Prestonpans, September 21.

Skirmish at Clifton, December 18.

1746 Battle of Falkirk, January 17.
Battle of Culloden, April 16.

Prince Charles sails for France, September 20.
Forfeited estates placed in the hands of commissioners

until 1784.
Repressive legislation against Scottish Episcopalians.

1747 Act of Indemnity passed.

Act disarming the Highlanders.
Highland costume prohibited.
Hereditary jurisdiction abolished.
Seceders become divided into burghers and anti-
burghers.
British Linen Banking Company chartered.
Regenting abolished at St. Andrews University.
Bishop Richard Pococke visits Scotland.

1748 Further repressive legislation against Episcopalians.
Schoolmasters make unsuccessful appeal for increase

of salary.

1 749 Scheme produced by General Assembly for increasing

livings rejected by Parliament.
Stage coach began to run between Edinburgh and
Glasgow.

1750 Robert Foulis opened a school of art in Glasgow,

which did not succeed.
Large sheep farms begun in the Highlands.
Prince Charles visits London.

1751 Turnpike Act, imposing a toll for the improvement

and keeping of the roads.

1752 The Rev. Thomas Gillespie of Carnock founded the

Relief Synod. He formed a presbytery in 1761.

214 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

1753 Execution of Dr. Archibald Cameron (of Lochiel) at

Tyburn.
Jacobite intrigues about this time until 1760.
New Town of Edinburgh commenced.
Regenting partly abolished at Aberdeen.

1754 Allan Ramsay, artist, formed the Select Society.
First volume of Hume's history published.

1755 Edinburgh Review first commenced, but only two

numbers issued. Commenced again in 1802.
Dr. Webster estimated population of Scotland at
1,250,000.

1756 Home's play of Douglas produced in Edinburgh.
Seven Years' War (1 756-1 763).

1760 Lord George Murray died in Holland.
Carron Ironworks founded.

A year of famine.

Banks began to open branches in country towns.

1 761 Death of Archibald, Duke of Argyll.

Select Society takes up the question of improving the
reading and speaking of the English language in
Scotland.

1762 Macpherson's Fingal published.

1764 Present liturgy of the Scottish Episcopal Church

compiled.
Reid's Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles

of Common Sense published.
Theatre licensed in Edinburgh.

1765 Gray the pOet visited the Highlands — one of the first

men to appreciate the beauty and the grandeur
of Highland scenery.

1766 Death of Prince James, the Chevalier.

1768 Gaelic Church opened in Edinburgh.

1769 Thomas Pennant visited Scotland, and again in 1772.
Gaelic translation of the New Testament published.
James Watt commences improvements on steam

engine.
First efforts to deepen the Clyde for vessels to sail up
to Glasgow.

1770 Montgomery Act to amend the law of entail.

CHRONICLE OF PRINCIPAL EVENTS 215

1770 Beattie's Essay on Truth published.

The moderate party in the Church at the height of
their influence under the moderatorship of Dr.
Alexander Carlyle.

1 77 1 Mackenzie's Man of Feeling published.

1772 North Bridge, Edinburgh, finished (commenced in

1763).

1773 Dr. Samuel Johnson's tour in the Highlands.

Meal mobs in the valley of the Tay.
Riots of Greenock sailors for higher wages.

1775 Serfdom of colliers and salters relieved, and finally

removed in 1795.
American War of Independence (1775-1781).

1776 Death of David Hume.

Adam Smith's Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of
the Wealth of Nations published.

1777 Highland Society of London founded to promote the

improvement and general welfare of the northern
parts of the kingdom.

1778 Forth and Clyde Canal opened (commenced in

1768).
John Paul Jones with American ships made a descent

on the Solway Firth.
Proposed removal of the Roman Catholic disabilities

supported by the moderate party in the Church.
David Dale starts manufacture of cotton on a large

scale in Lanark.

1779 John Paul Jones threatens Leith.

Anti-Roman Catholic riots in Edinburgh and
Glasgow.

1780 Agitation by the Edinburgh trades guilds for reform

of the town council.
Disputes between Edinburgh and Glasgow about
fixing the price at which corn might be im-
ported.

1 78 1 An enlarged collection of Paraphrases published and

authorised for use in churches. The first collec-
tion, which was only a provisional one, was
published in 1745.

216 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

1782 An attempt in the General Assembly of the Church to

carry, against the address to the crown, an
amendment condemning Lord North's govern-
ment defeated by the moderate party.

Famine in the Highlands.

Downfall of Lord North's government.

Manufacture of muslin commenced in Glasgow.

1783 Glasgoiv Herald founded (then called the Advertiser).
Royal Society of Edinburgh incorporated.

Act against wearing of Highland dress repealed.
The younger Pitt becomes Prime Minister.

1784 Last of the forfeited estates restored.

Samuel Seabury consecrated Bishop of the American
Episcopal Church at Aberdeen.

1786 Burns's poems published at Kilmarnock.

1787 Question of reform coming into prominence in some

burghs; delegates from fifty-four burghs pre-
pare a scheme of reform for submission to
Parliament.
Andrew Meikle completes a satisfactory threshing
mill.

1788 Death of Prince Charles Edward.

1789 Forth and Clyde Canal opened (commenced in

1768).

1790 Whigs of Dundee pass an address to the National

Assembly (the revolutionist government) of
France.
Population of Scotland about 1,500,000, with only
about 4000 parliamentary electors.

1 791 Boswell's Life of Johnson published.

Sir John Sinclair's statistical account of Scotland
(1791-1799).

1792 Excesses of the French Revolutionists cause a re-

action against reform.
Act of Toleration for Scottish Episcopalians.
Riot in Edinburgh against Henry Dundas on the

king's birthday.
People of Ross-shire attempt to drive the sheep out

of their country.

CHRONICLE OF PRINCIPAL EVENTS 217

1793 Habeas Corpus Act suspended.

Protest in Parliament by whigs against the bias
shown by Scottish judges in some recent prose-
cutions for sedition.

War with France (1 793-181 5).

1795 French royal exiles (Louis XVIII. and his brother,

afterwards Charles X.) live in Holyrood Palace
until 1799.
Steam used for spinning machinery in Glasgow.

1796 The younger whigs of Edinburgh form themselves

into a party.
Death of Robert Burns.

1797 Scotch militia finally placed on the same footing as

the English militia.

1798 Society of United Scotsmen (an offshoot of the " As-

sociation of the Friends of the People ") begin an
agitation for reform.

1799 Journeymen shoemakers attempt to combine for

higher wages.

1801 Crinan Canal opened (commenced in 1793).

1802 Gaelic translation of the Bible published.
Edinburgh Review founded in the whig interest.

1803 An Act of Parliament passed to improve the position

of parish schoolmasters.

1805 Paisley begins to be noted for its shawls.
Battle of Trafalgar.

1806 Sir Walter Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel published.

1807 Henry Stuart, Duke of York, cardinal, the last

legitimate male of the House of Stuart, died July

13-

1808 A succession of bad harvests until 1813.

Peninsular War (1 808-1814).

1809 Quarterly Review founded in London in the tory

interest in opposition to the Edinburgh Review.

1810 Rev. Henry Duncan, D.D., minister of Ruthwell,

Dumfriesshire, established there the first savings
bank.

181 1 A Gaelic School Society formed in Edinburgh.
First steamboat, the Comet, launched on the Clyde.

218 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

1813 Royal Caledonian Society founded in London for

supporting and educating the children of Scottish
soldiers and sailors killed or disabled in the service
of their country.

1814 Sir Walter Scott's Waverley published.

1 81 5 Battle of Waterloo.

Great distress among the people in consequence of
high prices and low wages after the war.

1 81 7 Scotsman, Inverness Courier, and Blackwood 's Maga-

zine founded.
State prosecutions for sedition and treason.

1818 A company formed in Edinburgh to use gas for light-

ing purposes.

1820 Political riots in Glasgow, Stirling, Dumbarton, and

other places.

1 82 1 Parliamentary road from Perth to Wick finished

(commenced in 1803).
Edinburgh Society of Arts founded.

1822 George IV. visits Scotland.

Caledonian Canal finished (commenced in 1803).

1823 The Bannatyne Club founded by Sir Walter Scott for

the publication of rare Scottish works — dissolved
in 1865.

1826 Scottish Academy founded.

The Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway opened —
the first in Scotland.

1827 Scott's Tales of a Grandfather, first series, published

(completed in 1829).
The Rev. Patrick Bell invents a reaping machine.
An Act of Parliament to endow parliamentary
churches in the Highlands.
1829 Roman Catholic Emancipation Act.
1832 Death of Sir Walter Scott.

Chambers's Edinburgh Journal commenced.
The Reform Act passed.
1834 The Scottish Burgh Reform Act passed.

1837 Accession of Queen Victoria.

1838 Chartist movement commenced.

1841 Seven members of the Presbytery of Strathbogie

CHRONICLE OF PRINCIPAL EVENTS 219

deposed by the General Assembly for obeying
the civil courts rather than the General Assembly.

1842 Queen Victoria and Prince Albert hold their court in

Edinburgh, September 1-13.

1843 Disruption of the Church of Scotland, and the Free

Church formed, May 18.

1845 Scottish Poor Law Act passed.

The Sir Walter Scott monument in Edinburgh
finished (commenced 1840).

1846 Failure of the potato crops causes much distress,

especially in the Highlands.
1848 Rutherford Act, to amend law regarding land

property.
1850 Queen Victoria opened a bridge over the Tweed at

Berwick completing a railway between London

and Edinburgh. This was described as " The

last act of the union."
Death of Lord Jeffrey.
James Young discovers the art of manufacturing

paraffin oil.
1853 A National Association formed for the vindication of

Scottish rights.
Forbes Mackenzie Act for the regulation of public

houses in Scotland, and granting grocers licences

for the sale of spirits.
1853 The Crimean War (1853- 1856).
1856 An Act for the better government of the Scottish

Universities.
1859 Glasgow Water Works (from Loch Katrine) opened

by Queen Victoria.
The volunteer force established.
i860 Queen Victoria reviews 20,000 volunteers in

Edinburgh, August 7.
1 86 1 Prince Albert lays foundation stones of the General

Post Office and the Industrial Museum Buildings,

Edinburgh.
Death of Prince Albert, December 14.
1866 New water works for Aberdeen opened by Queen

Victoria.

220 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

1868 Scottish Reform Act passed.

An Act to amend procedure of the Court of Session
passed.
1870 New buildings for Glasgow University opened.
1872 Scottish Education Act passed, August 10.

1874 Patronage abolished in the Church of Scotland.

A return of owners of lands and heritages published
by the government — a kind of Doomsday Book
for Scotland.

1875 An association formed for the disestablishment of the

Church of Scotland.

1878 Romanist hierarchy revived in Scotland by the Pope.
The first Tay Bridge opened.

Failure of the City of Glasgow Bank,

1879 Collapse of the Tay Bridge during a severe storm and

many lives lost, December 28.

1880 Act passed for the abolition of landlords' rights of

hypothec * for rent in Scotland, to come into force
the following year.

1 88 1 Queen Victoria reviews 40,000 Scottish volunteers in

the Queen's Park, Edinburgh, August 25.
Agrarian agitation against high rents commenced in

Aberdeenshire and Banffshire.
1883 An Act to amend the law of entail.

Scottish Academy of Music founded in Edinburgh.

1883 St. Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh, opened after restora-

tion (commenced in 1872).
Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the con-
dition of crofters in the Highlands of Scotland
— report published the following year.

1884 An agitation for Highland land law reform com-

menced in Dingwall. The agitation continued
in the western islands, especially in Skye and
Lewis, with some rioting, until 1888.

1885 Mr. R. B. Finlay's Bill for Promoting Reunion of the

Presbyterian Churches in Scotland rejected.

1 Hypothec is a security in favour of a creditor over the property
of a debtor while the property continues in a debtor's possession.
Thus the landlord had a prior right against other creditors to seize
his tenants' crops and cattle for rent.

CHRONICLE OF PRINCIPAL EVENTS 221

1885 This was fallowed by an agitation for disestablish-

ment.
Act passed for restoring the office of Secretary for

Scotland.
Ancient cross of Edinburgh restored by Mr. W. E.

Gladstone.

1886 The Crofters Act passed to amend the law relating to

the tenure of land by crofters in the Highlands
and islands of Scotland.
Resolutions in favour of Church disestablishment in
Scotland rejected by the House of Commons, also
in 1888, 1890, 1892.

1887 Tay Bridge re-opened.

1889 Local Government Act for Scotland for election of

county councils.
An Act giving more freedom of teaching to the

Scottish Universities and increasing the state

grant to £42,000.
New National Portrait Gallery opened in Edinburgh.

1890 Forth Bridge opened by the Prince of Wales

(commenced January 1883).
Great railway strike from December 22 to January 31,
1891.

1891 Parliament Hall, Edinburgh (erected 1434), restored.

1892 Resolutions in favour of home rule rejected by the

House of Commons — also in 1893.
1894 Great miners' strike, June 26 to October 22.
1897 The new North Bridge, Edinburgh, opened.

1899 Boer War (1899-1902).

1900 The Free Church and the United Presbyterian Church

unite to form the United Free Church (October
31). A minority of the Free Church refuse to
enter into the union.

1 90 1 Death of Queen Victoria and accession of Edward

VII.
1904 The House of Lords declares the anti-unionist minority
of the Free Church to be the true Free Church
and the legal owners of all the Free Church
property.

PRIME MINISTERS SINCE THE UNION

APPOINTED

1702 Sidney Godolphin, Earl of Godolphin (1645-1712).

1 7 10 John Poulett, Earl Poulett (1663- 1743).

1711 John Harley, Earl of Oxford (1661-1724).

1 7 14 Charles Talbot, Earl and afterwards Duke of Shrews-
bury (1660-17 18).

1714 Charles Montagu, Earl of Halifax (1661-1715).

1 7 15 Charles Howard, Earl of Carlisle (1674-1738).

1715 Sir Robert Walpole (1676-1745), afterwards Earl of
Orford. Walpole is the first head of the govern-
ment to whom the title of Prime Minister is
usually given.

1717 James Stanhope (1673-1721), afterwards first Earl of

Stanhope.

1 7 18 Charles Spencer, third Earl of Sunderland (1674-

1722).
1 72 1 Sir Robert Walpole (again).

1742 Spencer Compton, first Earl of Wilmington (d. 1743).

1743 Henry Pelham (1695-1754).

The " Broad Bottomed Ministry," so called because
it included representatives of every section of
the whig party, which had become very dis-
united, and would therefore be difficult to upset.
1754 Thomas Pelham Holies, first Duke of Newcastle-
under-Lyne (1693-1768).

1756 William Cavendish, first Duke of Devonshire (1720-

1764).

1757 The Duke of Newcastle (again).

The real head of this ministry was William Pitt (1708-
1778), afterwards Earl of Chatham, whose able
and energetic rule made British arms so victorious
in the Seven Years' War.
1762 John Stuart, third Earl of Bute (1713-1792).

222

PRIME MINISTERS SINCE THE UNION 223

APPOINTED

1763 George Grenville (1712-1770).

1765 Charles Watson Wentworth, second Marquis of Rock-

ingham ( 1 730-1 762).

1766 William Pitt, first Earl of Chatham (1708-1778).

1767 Augustus Henry Fitzroy, third Duke of Grafton

(1735-1811).
1770 Frederick North, eighth Lord North (1 732-1 792),

afterwards second Earl of Guildford.
1782 The Marquis of Rockingham (again).

1782 William Petty Fitz-Maurice, second Earl of Shel-

burne (1737-1805), afterwards first Marquis of
Lansdowne.

1783 William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, third Duke of

Portland (1 738-1809). A coalition ministry in
which Lord North (tory) and Charles James Fox
(1749-1806) (whig) took office.

1783 William Pitt (1759-1806).

1801 Henry Addington (1757-1844), afterwards first Vis-
count Sidmouth.

1804 William Pitt (again).

1806 William Wyndham Grenville, first Lord Grenville

( 1 759-1834). A coalition ministry, of which
Charles James Fox (1749- 1806) was the real head.
It was called the " Ministry of all the Talents "
because an attempt was made to unite the ablest
men of all parties.

1807 The Duke of Portland (again).
1809 Spencer Percival (1762-1812).

181 2 Robert Banks Jenkinson, second Earl of Liverpool

(1770-1828).
1827 George Canning (1 770-1827). .

1827 Frederick John Robinson, first Viscount Goderich

(1782-1859).

1828 Arthur Wellesley, first Duke of Wellington (1769-

1852).
1830 Charles Grey, second Earl Grey (1764-1845).
1834 William Lamb, second Viscount Melbourne (1779-

1848).

224 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

APPOINTED

1834 Sir Robert Peel, Bart. (1 788-1850).

1835 Viscount Melbourne (again).
1841 Sir Robert Peel (again).

1846 Lord John Russell (1792-1878), afterwards first Earl

Russell.
1852 Edward Geoffrey Smith Stanley, fourteenth Earl of

Derby (1 799-1 869).
1852 George Hamilton Gordon, fourth Earl of Aberdeen

(1784-1860).
1855 Henry John Temple, third Viscount Palmerston (1784-

1865).

1858 The Earl of Derby (again).

1859 Viscount Palmerston (again).

1865 Earl Russell (again).

1866 The Earl of Derby (again).

1868 Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881), afterwards Earl of

Beaconsfield.
1868 William Ewart Gladstone (1809- 1898).
1874 The Earl of Beaconsfield (again).
1880 William Ewart Gladstone (again).

1885 Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne Cecil, third Marquis

of Salisbury (1830-1903).

1886 William Ewart Gladstone (again).
1886 The Marquis of Salisbury (again).
1892 William Ewart Gladstone (again).

1894 Archibald Philip Primrose, fifth Earl of Rosebery.

1895 The Marquis of Salisbury (again).
1902 Arthur James Balfour.

1905 Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (1836- 1908).
1908 Herbert Henry Asquith.

LORD ADVOCATES OF SCOTLAND SINCE
THE UNION

APPOINTED

1692 Sir James Stewart.

1709 Sir David Dalrymple (died 1721).

1 71 1 Sir James Stewart (again).

1 7 14 Thomas Kennedy (died 1754).

1 7 14 Sir David Dalrymple (again).

1720 Robert Dundas (1685-1753), afterwards Lord Arniston.

1725 Duncan Forbes of Culloden (1685-1747).

1737 Charles Erskine (1680-1763), afterwards Lord Tin-
wald (in Dumfriesshire).

1742 Robert Craigie of Glendoick (Perthshire) (1685-1760).

1746 William Grant (1701 ?-i764), afterwards Lord Preston-
grange.

1754 Robert Dundas (1713-1787), afterwards Lord
Arniston, son of the former Robert Dundas
(1720).

1760 Sir Thomas Miller, Bart. (1717-1789), afterwards Lord
Glenlee.

1766 Sir James Montgomery, Bart., of Stanhope, Peebles-
shire ( 1 721-1803).

1775 Henry Dundas (1 742-1 811), afterwards Viscount Mel-
ville, son of the first-mentioned Robert Dundas
(1720).

1783 The Hon. Henry Erskine (1746-1817).

1784 Sir Hay Campbell, Bart. (1 734-1823).

1789 Robert Dundas (1758-1819), afterwards Lord Arniston,
son of the second Robert Dundas (1754).

1801 Charles Hope (1763-1851), afterwards Lord Granton.

1804 Sir James Montgomery, Bart., of Stanhope (1766-
1839), son of the former Sir James Montgomery.
225 p

226 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

APPOINTED

1806 The Hon. Henry Erskine (again).

1807 Archibald Campbell (died 1820), afterwards adopted

the surname Colquhoun.
1816 Alexander Maconochie (1777-1861), afterwards Lord

Meadowbank.
1819 Sir William Rae, Bart. (1769-1842).
1830 Francis Jeffrey (1773-1850), afterwards Lord Jeffrey.

1834 Sir William Rae (again).

1835 Sir John Archibald Murray (1779-1859), afterwards

Lord Murray.
1839 Andrew Rutherford (1791-1854), afterwards Lord
Rutherford.

1841 Sir William Rae (again).

1842 Duncan McNeill (1793-1874), afterwards Baron

Colonsay and Oronsay.
1846 Andrew Rutherford (again).

1851 James Moncrieff (1811-1895), afterwards Baron Mon-

crieff of Tulliebole.

1852 John Inglis (1810-1891), afterwards Lord Glencorse.
1852 James Moncrieff (again).

1858 John Inglis (again).

1858 Charles Baillie (1804-1879), afterwards Lord Jervis-

woode.

1859 James Moncrieff (again).

1866 George Patton (1803-1869), afterwards Lord Glen-
almond.

1868 Edward Strathearn Gordon (1814-1879), afterwards
Baron Gordon.

1868 James Moncrieff (again).

1869 George Young (1819-1907), afterwards Lord Young.
1874 Edward Strathearn Gordon (again).

1876 William Watson (1827-1899), afterwards Lord Watson.

1880 John McLaren, afterwards Lord McLaren.

1881 John Blair Balfour (1837-1905), afterwards Baron

Kinross of Glasclune.

1885 John Hay Athole Macdonald, afterwards Lord Kings-

burgh.

1886 John Blair Balfour (again).

SECRETARIES OF STATE 227

APPOINTED

1886 John Hay Athole Macdonald (again).
1888 James Patrick Bannerman Robertson, afterwards
Baron Robertson of Forteviot.

1 89 1 Sir Charles John Pearson, afterwards Lord Pearson.

1892 John Blair Balfour (again).

1895 Sir Charles John Pearson (again).

1896 Andrew Graham Murray, afterwards Baron Dunedin

of Stenton.
1903 Charles Scott Dickson.
1905 Thomas Shaw.

SECRETARIES OF STATE FOR SCOTLAND

After the Treaty of Union with England a Secretary of
State was appointed for Scottish affairs, the first being the
Earl of Mar, afterwards leader of the Rebellion of 17 15, who
held office until the death of Queen Anne.

The office was suspended by Walpole, who was anxious to
have the affairs of Scotland conducted in obedience to his own
principles.

The fall of Walpole in 1742 led to a revival of the office and
Lord Tweeddale was appointed to it, but he proved incapable
of dealing with the Rebellion of 1745 and was dismissed the
following year. The office was now once more abolished and
the affairs of Scotland were placed in the hands of the Duke
of Argyll, who as Earl of Islay had managed them for many
years during Walpole's administration. Henceforth the
management of Scottish affairs was informally placed in
the hands of the most competent Scotsman available, while
the Lord Advocate undertook the management of Scottish

228 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

measures in Parliament. The tendency of this was to
lessen the distinctively Scottish element in the administra-
tion, but on the other hand the fact that the management of
Scottish affairs was not specially connected with any high
office saved Scotland from the danger of becoming, like
Ireland, a mere pawn in the degrading game of party politics.
The office was revived by Act of Parliament in 1885, and
has since been held by the following : —

1885 Charles Henry Gordon Lennox, Duke of Richmond

(1818-1903).

1886 Sir George Otto Trevelyan, Bart.

1886 John William Ramsay, Earl of Dalhousie (1847-1887).

1886 Arthur James Balfour.

1887 Schomberg Henry Kerr, Marquis of Lothian (1833-

1900).
1892 Sir George Otto Trevelyan, Bart, (again).
1895 Alexander Hugh Bruce, Lord Balfour of Burleigh.
1903 Andrew Graham Murray.

1903 John Adrian Louis Hope, Marquis of Linlithgow.
I9°5 John Sinclair.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

(Some Notable Scotsmen since the Union)

Abercromby, Sir Ralph (1734-1801), b. Menstrie, Clack-
mannanshire. A distinguished soldier; served in the
Seven Years' War. M. P. for Clackmannanshire 1 774-1780.
Commanded an expedition to act against the French in
Egypt in 1801 and was mortally wounded in the Battle
of Alexandria. He was buried in Malta and there
is a monument to him in St. Paul's Cathedral. His
second son, General Sir John Abercromby (1772-1817),
captured Mauritius in 1809. His third son, James
(1 776-1858), was speaker of the House of Commons
(1835- 1 839) and was then created Baron Dunfermline.

Aberdeen, George Hamilton Gordon, Earl of (1784-1860),
b. Edinburgh. He was Prime Minister (1852-1855) at
the time of the Crimean War.

Adam, Alexander, LL.D. (1741-1809), b. near Forres, son of
a small farmer. He was rector of the High School,
Edinburgh (1 768-1809), and had Sir Walter Scott, Lord
Jeffrey, Lord Brougham, and other distinguished Scots-
men among his pupils. Author of Roman Antiquities

(I791)-

Adam, Robert (1728-1792), b. Kirkcaldy, Fife. A dis-
tinguished architect, some time M.P. for Kinross-shire.
Built the Register House and the University, Edinburgh,
the infirmary in Glasgow, and some well-known build-
ings in London. Died in London and buried in West-
minster Abbey. His father, William Adam (1689-1748),
of Maryburgh, Fife, was also a noted architect. Several
other members of this family were men of eminence.

Aird, Thomas (1802-1876), b. Bowden, Roxburgh. Minor
poet. The Devil's Dream is his best known work.

229

230 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

Alison, Sir Archibald (i 792-1867), b. Shropshire, son of the
Rev. Archibald Alison, an Episcopalian minister in
Edinburgh. Sheriff of Lanarkshire 1834. Author of a
History of Europe during the French Revolution(i833-i842)
and a History of Europe from the Fall of Napoleon to the
Accession of Louis Napoleon (1852-1859). His son, Sir
Archibald Alison, G.C.B., b. Edinburgh in 1826,
a distinguished soldier.

Allan, David (1 744-1 796), b. Alloa. A noted Scottish artist.
Designed illustrations for Ramsay's " Gentle Shepherd."

Allan, Sir Hugh (1810-1882), b. Saltcoats, Ayrshire. An
eminent shipbuilder, and founder of the Allan Line of
steamboats.

Allan, Sir William (1782-1850), I. Edinburgh. A Scottish
historical painter. President of the Royal Scottish
Academy, 1841.

Anderson, James (1662-1728), b. Edinburgh. Antiquary.
Author of a treatise vindicating the independence of
Scotland, 1705.

Arbuthnot, John (1667-1735), b. Arbuthnot, Kincardine-
shire. Son of an Episcopalian minister; a physician
and writer in London; best known as the respected
friend of Pope and Swift.

Argyll, John Campbell, second Duke of (1 678-1 743), created
Duke of Greenwich 17 19. A distinguished soldier and
statesman; served under the Duke of Marlborough and
distinguished himself at the Battles of Ramillies,
Oudenarde, and Malplaquet; suppressed the Rebellion
of 17 15 and took a leading part in the affairs of Scotland.
His brother Archibald (1682-1761), Lord Islay, who
succeeded him as third duke, was for many years the
virtual ruler of Scotland. Both brothers died without
issue. George John Douglas Campbell (1823-1900),
eighth duke. A distinguished statesman and writer of
the reign of Queen Victoria.

Armstrong, John(i709-i779), b. Castleton Manse, Roxburgh-
shire. Physician and poet in London ; friend of the poet
Thomson. Author of a poem on " The Art of Preserv-
ing Health."

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 231

Atholl, John Murray (1659-1724), first Duke of. Leader of
Highland Jacobites at time of the union. His son,
William, Marquis of Tullibardine, took part in the
Jacobite risings, was outlawed, and died a prisoner in
the Tower in 1746. His next son, James (i69o?-i764),
who succeeded him as second duke, did much by tree-
planting and in other ways to promote industry and to
develop the resources of the country. A younger son,
Lord George Murray (1694-1760), commanded the
Jacobite army at Culloden and died an exile in Holland.
The present ducal family of Atholl is descended from
Lord George Murray.

Aytoun, William Edmondstoune (1813-1865), b. Edinburgh.
Writer to .the Signet, Sheriff of Orkney, 1852, Professor
of Rhetoric in Edinburgh University, 1845. D.C.L. of
Oxford. A writer of ballads. His best known work is
Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers (1848).

Baillie, Lady Grizel (1665- 1746), daughter of Sir Patrick
Hume, married son of Robert Baillie of Jerviswood.
She wrote songs, the best known of which is " And
werena my heart licht I wad dee."

Baillie, Joanna (1762-1851), b. Bothwell Manse in Lanark-
shire. Poetess. Chief works, the Plays on the Passions
(1798-1836). Died at Hampstead, where she spent a
great part of her life.

Baird, Sir David (1757-1829), b. Newbyth, Haddingtonshire.
A distinguished general. Led the storming column at
the siege of Seringapatam in India in 1799 and captured
the Cape of Good Hope in 1806. He was second in
command at the Battle of Corunna, 1809, where he lost
his left arm.

Baird, James (1802-1876), b. Kirkwood, near Old Monk-
land. An ironmaster and a liberal benefactor of the
Church of Scotland. In 1871 he founded the " Baird
Lectures " for the defence of orthodox theology in
Scotland.

Ballantyne, James (1772-1833) and John (1774-1821).
Brothers, natives of Kelso. Edinburgh publishers. Sir
Walter Scott, whose works they printed, was a secret

232 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

partner in their business, which did not prove very
successful and ended in failure in 1826.

Ballantyne, Robert Michael (1825-1894), b. Edinburgh,
nephew of Scott's printers. Writer of tales for boys.

Balmerino, Arthur Elphinstone, sixth Lord (1688-1746).
Took part in the rebellion of 1745, was taken prisoner
at the Battle of Culloden and beheaded on Tower Hill.
(Balmerino in Fifeshire.)

Barnard, Lady Anne (1750-1825), daughter of James
Lindsay, fifth Earl of Balcarres, married Andrew
Barnard, Colonial Secretary to Lord Macartney,
Governor of the Cape of Good Hope, where she lived for
some years. She was the author of " Auld Robin
Gray."

Beattie, James (1 735-1803), b. Laurencekirk. Professor of
Moral Philosophy at Marischal College, Aberdeen, 1760.
Poet and essayist. Chief works: Essay on Truth (1770),
a reply to David Hume, and The Minstrel (1771-1774).

Begg, Rev. James, D.D. (1808-1883), b. New Monkland
Manse, Lanarkshire. Free Church minister of Newing-
ton, Edinburgh, 1843-1883. Orator, philanthropist,
social reformer, and an upholder of Scottish orthodoxy.

Belhaven, John Hamilton, second Baron (1656-1708).
(Belhaven in Haddingtonshire.) Strong supporter of the
Revolution of 1688 and of the Darien scheme. Made
a famous speech against the union in the Scottish
Parliament in 1706.

Bell, Rev. Andrew, D.D. (1753-1832), b. St. Andrews and
educated there. He became a clergyman of the Church
of England and an educational reformer. When " The
National Society for the Education of the Poor " was
founded by the Church of England in 181 1, Dr. Bell
became superintendent of it. He died at Cheltenham,
leaving a large fortune for educational purposes, half
of it for St. Andrews.

Bell, Henry (1767-1830), b. Torphichen, Linlithgow. Father
of steam navigation ; launched a steamboat, The Comet,
on the Clyde in 181 2.

Bell, Henry Glassford (1803-1874), b. Glasgow. Sheriff of

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 233

Lanarkshire. Author of a well-known poem on Mary,
Queen of Scots.

Bell, Rev. Patrick, LL.D. (1 799-1869), b. near Dundee.
Minister of Carmylie, Forfarshire. Inventor of the
reaping machine, 1827.

Berwick, James Fitzjames, Duke of (1670-1734), natural
son of James II. by Arabella Churchill, sister of the
Duke of Marlborough, b. Moulins, France. A great
French general.

Black, Adam (1784-1874), b. Edinburgh. An Edinburgh
publisher. Purchased the Encyclopedia Britannica in
1827 after the Constable's failure.

Black, Joseph (1728-1799), b. Bordeaux, of Scottish extrac-
tion. Chemist and physician. Professor of Chemistry
and Medicine first in Glasgow and afterwards in Edin-
burgh. He discovered "latent heat" and has been
called the founder of the modern science of chemistry.

Black, William (1841-1898), b. Glasgow. Journalist and
novelist.

Blackie, John Stuart (1809-1895), b. Glasgow. Professor of
Greek in Edinburgh, 1852-1882. A versatile writer in
prose and verse. Died in Edinburgh.

Blacklock, Thomas, D.D. (1721-1791), b. Annan. Blind
from childhood. Minister for some time of Kirkcud-
bright. A poet. It was a letter from him that prevented
Robert Burns from sailing to the West Indies in 1786.

Blackwood, William (1776-1834), b. Edinburgh. An
Edinburgh publisher; founded Blackwood's Magazine
in 1817.

Blair, Hugh (1718-1800). Born and died in Edinburgh.
Minister of the High Church, Edinburgh, and Professor
of Belles Lettres in the University. His lectures and
sermons obtained a great reputation.

Blair, Robert (1699-1746),^. Edinburgh. Minister of Athel-
stanford in Haddingtonshire. Author of a well-known
poem "The Grave" (1743). His third son, Robert
Blair (1741-1811), was Lord President of the Court
of Session.

Bonar, Rev. Horatius, D.D. (1808-1889), b. Edinburgh.

234 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

Free Church minister in Edinburgh. A well-known
hymn-writer.

Boston, Thomas (1676-1732), b. Duns, in Berwickshire.
Minister of Ettrick in Selkirkshire. Author of a work
entitled The Fourfold State (1720) which was long re-
garded as a standard exposition of Calvinistic theology,
and also of an interesting Autobiography, which was not
published until 1776.

Boswell, James (1 740-1 795), b. Edinburgh, son of Lord
Auchinleck, a judge in the Court of Session. Educated
for the law. His Life of Dr. Samuel Johnson (1791) is
admitted to be our greatest biography.

Braxfield, Robert Macqueen, Lord (1722-1799), b. near
Lanark. A noted Scottish judge.

Brewster, Sir David (1761-1868), b. Jedburgh. An
eminent scientist. Appointed Principal of Edinburgh
University, 1859.

Brodie, William (Deacon Brodie). Deacon of the Edin-
burgh Wrights' Incorporation. Assumed leadership of
a gang of burglars and was hanged in 1788.

Brougham, Henry Brougham, Lord (1778-1868), b. Edin-
burgh and there educated at the High School and
University. Entered Parliament in 1810. A leading
whig. Lord Chancellor 1830-1834.

Brown, John (1722-1787), b. Perthshire. Burgher minister
of Haddington. Author of the Dictionary of the Bible
(1768) and a Self-Interpreting Bible (1778). His great-
grandson, Dr. John Brown (1810-1862), b. Biggar, a
noted essayist, author of Horce Subsecivce (Leisure
Hours, 1858-1861).

Brown, Thomas (1778-1820), b. Kirkmabreck Manse,
Kirkcudbrightshire. A Scottish philosopher. He was
colleague to Dugald Stewart, Professor of Moral
Philosophy in Edinburgh University.

Bruce, James (1730-1794), b. and d. at Kincaid, Stirling-
shire. Made a famous journey to Abyssinia. Author
of Travels to Discover the Sources of the Nile (1791).

Bruce, Michael (1 746-1 767), b. Kinnesswood, Kinross-shire.
A poet.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 235

Bruce, Thomas, see Elgin.

Buchanan, Dugald (1716-1768), &. Balquhidder, Perthshire.
A Gaelic religious poet.

Buchanan, Robert, D.D. (1802 - 1875), b. St. Ninians,
Stirlingshire. A leader in the Free Church Disruption
and a minister in Glasgow. Author of History of the
Ten Years' Conflict (1849).

Burnet, Gilbert (1643-1715), b. Edinburgh; d. Clerkenwell,
London. Whig Bishop of Salisbury. Friend of
William III. Author of a History of the Reformation.

Burns, Sir George (1795-1890), b. Glasgow. A Glasgow
merchant and philanthropist, and one of the founders of
the Cunard Steam Packet Company in 1839.

Burns, Robert (1759-1796), b. Alloway, near Ayr; d.
Dumfries. The national poet of Scotland.

Burt, Edward (d. 1755 in London). Roadmaker with
General Wade in the Highlands. Author of Letters
from the North of Scotland (1754).

Burton, John Hill, D.C.L. (1809-1881), b. Aberdeen.
Historiographer Royal of Scotland. Author of a
History of Scotland in eight volumes (1867-1870) and
several other works.

Bute, John Stuart, third Earl of (17 13-1792). Tutor to
George III. Prime Minister 1762-1763. (See Sir Charles
Stuart.)

Caird, John, D.D. (1820-1898), b. Greenock. Principal of
Glasgow University 187 3- 1898. A great preacher.

Cameron, Donald (i695?-i748), b. Achnacarry, Inverness-
shire. " The Gentle Lochiel " took prominent part in
the Rebellion of 1745. Died an exile in France. His
brother, Dr. Archibald Cameron ( 1707-17 53), was hanged
in London, the last to suffer death in the Jacobite
cause.

Campbell, Sir Colin, see Lord Clyde.

Campbell, Rev. George (1719-1796), b. Aberdeen. Principal
of Marischal College, Aberdeen. Author of the famous
Dissertation on Miracles (1762) in answer to Hume.

Campbell, John, Lord Campbell (1 779-1861), b. Cupar, Fife,
son of the parish minister. Lord Chancellor 1859.

236 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

Author of Lives of the Chief Justices (1849-1857) and
Lives of the Lord Chancellors (1845-1847).

Campbell, John Francis, of Islay (1822-1885). Gaelic
scholar. Author of Popular Tales of the West Highlands
(1860-1862), said to be one of the most important
contributions ever made to the study of folklore.

Campbell, Thomas (1777-1844), b. Glasgow; d. Boulogne,
buried in Westminster Abbey. Poet. Chief work, The
Pleasures of Hope (1799).

Candlish, Robert Smith, D.D. (1806-1873), b. and d. in
Edinburgh. One of the principal Free Church leaders
in the Disruption of 1843.

Carlyle, Alexander, D.D. (1722-1805), b. Cummertrees
Manse, Dumfriesshire. Minister of Inveresk, near
Edinburgh 1 748-1805. Leader of the moderate party
in the Church of Scotland. His Autobiography was
published in i860.

Carlyle, Thomas (1795-1881), b. Ecclefechan, in Dumfries-
shire ; d. in Chelsea, London. A great historical writer.
Chief works: Sartor Resartus (1833- 1834), The French
Revolution (1837), History of Frederick II. commonly
called Frederick the Great (1858-1865).

Carstairs, William (1649-1715), b. Cathcart, near Glasgow.
Presbyterian divine. Was chaplain to William of
Orange; took a leading part in the Revolution Settle-
ment of Scottish Church affairs and became principal of
Edinburgh University in 1703; strongly supported the
Treaty of Union. During the reign of William his
influence in Scottish affairs was so great that he was
popularly known as " Cardinal " Carstairs.

Cathcart, William Schaw, Earl, tenth Baron Cathcart in
peerage of Scotland (1755-1843). A distinguished
general. A younger son, Sir George Cathcart (1794-
1854), also a distinguished general, was killed at the
Battle of Inkermann.

Chalmers, Rev. Thomas, D.D., D.C.L. (1780-1847), b.
Anstruther, in Fifeshire; d. suddenly in Edinburgh.
Founded the Free Church of Scotland in 1843. A great
orator, a social reformer, and a voluminous writer.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 237

Chambers, William (1800- 1883), and his brother Robert
(1802-187 1). Both born at Peebles. Edinburgh book-
sellers and authors. Founded Chambers's Journal 1832.

Clerk, Sir John, of Penicuik (1676-1755). Antiquarian
writer.

Clyde, Colin Campbell, Lord (1792-1863), b. Glasgow. A
distinguished general. Served in the Peninsular War,
the Crimean War, and the Indian Mutiny. Buried in
Westminster Abbey.

Cockburn, Alison (nee Rutherford) (1713-1795), daughter of
the Laird of Fairnilee, in Selkirkshire, married Patrick
Cockburn, advocate. Author of " The Flowers of the
Forest." Was for many years the queen of Edinburgh
society and discerned the genius of Sir Walter Scott in
his early childhood.

Cockburn, Henry, Lord (1779-1854), b. Edinburgh (?).
Nephew of Henry Dundas. He was a Scottish judge.
A leading man among the Scottish whigs, and a zealous
supporter of Parliamentary reform.

Colonsay, Duncan McNeill, Lord (1 793-1874), b. in the
island of Oronsay, Argyllshire. A Scottish judge. His
brother, Sir John McNeill (1 795-1863), was an Asiatic
diplomatist.

Constable, Archibald (1774-1827), b. Carnbee, Fifesliire. An
Edinburgh publisher. He published for the chief
writers of the time, including Sir Walter Scott, and was
also the publisher of the Edinburgh Review. The firm of
Constable & Co. was largely involved in the crisis of
1826 (see James Ballantyne). In 181 2 he purchased the
copyright of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Coutts, Thomas (1735-1822), b. Edinburgh. Founded the
London banking house of Coutts & Co. Grandfather
of the Baroness Burdett-Coutts.

Cruden, Alexander (1701-1770), b. Aberdeen. Author of an
admirable Concordance of the Holy Scriptures (1737).

Cullen, William (1710-1790), b. Hamilton. An eminent
physician, and for many years one of the medical
professors of Edinburgh University. Author of several
medical works.

238 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

Cumming, Rev. John, D.D. (1807-1881), b. in the parish of
Fintray, Aberdeenshire. Minister of the Scottish
Church, Covent Garden, London, 1832-1879. Noted
for his exposition of prophecy.

Cumming, Roualeyn George Gordon (1820-1866), of Altyre,
in Elginshire. An African explorer and hunter. Author
of The Lion Hunter of South Africa (1858).

Cunningham, Allan (1784-1842), b. parish of Keir, Dumfries-
shire. Poet and man of letters, and a friend of James
Hogg and Sir Walter Scott. His sons also distinguished
themselves as writers, viz., Captain Joseph Davey
(1812-1851) wrote a history of the Sikhs; Major-
General Sir Alexander (1814-1893) wrote several books
on Indian subjects; Peter (1816-1859), an antiquary,
wrote a Handbook of London; and Francis (1820-1875)
edited the works of Marlowe, Massinger, and Ben Jonson.

Cunningham, Rev. John, D.D., LL.D. (1819-1893), b.
Paisley. Became Principal of St. Andrews University
in 1886. Author of The Church History of Scotland

(i859)-

Cunningham, Rev. William, D.D. (1805-1861), b. Hamilton.
One of the leaders in the Disruption Controversy. On
the death of Dr. Chalmers in 1847 ne became Principal
of the Free Church College, Edinburgh.

Currie, James (1756-1805), b. Kirkpatrick-Flemming
Manse, Dumfriesshire. Studied medicine and obtained
a good practice in Liverpool. Author of some medical
works, but is best known as the first editor of the works
of Robert Burns, 1800.

Dale, David (1 739-1806), b. Stewarton, Ayrshire. Started
cotton-spinning in Lanarkshire in 1778.

Dalhousie, John Andrew Broun-Ramsay, Marquis of (1812-
1860), b. and d. at Dalhousie Castle, Midlothian. A
great Indian statesman.

Dalrymple, see Hailes and Stair.

Dick, James (1743-1828), b. Forres. A London and West
Indian merchant. Left the " Dick Bequest " of
£113,000 to promote higher learning among the parish
schoolmasters of Elgin, Banff, and Aberdeen.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 239

Dick, Robert (1811-1866). Native of Clackmannanshire
and a baker in Thurso, Caithness-shire. A self-taught
geologist and botanist.
Donaldson, James (1751-1830), b. Edinburgh. An Edin-
burgh newspaper proprietor and bookseller. Left
£240,000 to found Donaldson's Hospital for poor
children in Edinburgh.
Douglas, John (1721-1807), b. Pittenweem, son of a shop-
keeper. Became an army chaplain and eventually
Bishop of Salisbury. Wrote several works, including
a Letter on the Criterion of Miracles (1754) against David
Hume.
Douglas, Sir William Fettes (1822-1891), b. Edinburgh. A

distinguished artist.
Drummond, George (1687-1766), a native of Edinburgh, of
which he was six times Lord Provost. Helped to
establish a medical faculty in Edinburgh University,
and founded the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.
Drummond, Henry (1851-1897), b. Stirling. Professor of
Natural Science in the Free Church College, Glasgow.
Author of Natural Law in the Spiritual World (1883)
and other works.
Drummond, James (1816-1877), b. Edinburgh. A historical

painter.
Duff, Rev. Alexander, D.D. (1806-1878), b. near Pitlochry,

in Perthshire. A great Indian missionary.
Duncan of Camperdown, Adam Duncan, Viscount (1731-
1804), b. Dundee. A distinguished admiral. Defeated
the Dutch at the Battle of Camperdown 1797. There
is a monument to him in St. Paul's Cathedral.
Duncan, Rev. Dr. Henry (1744-1828). Minister of Ruthwell,
Dumfriesshire, and there founded the first savings bank
in 1810.
Dundas, Henry, see Melville, Viscount.
Dundas, Robert (1685-1753), of Arniston, Midlothian, M.P.
for Midlothian and Lord Advocate. Gave much
attention to Scottish affairs in Parliament. Raised to
the bench of Scottish judges as Lord Arniston and
became President of the Court of Session. His son,

240 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

Robert (171 3- 1787 ), became Lord Advocate, and after-
wards President of the Court of Session, and a younger
son, Henry, became Viscount Melville. (See Melville.)

Dundonald, Thomas Cochrane, Earl of (1775-1860), b.
Annsfield, Hamilton. A distinguished admiral and for
some time Member of Parliament. For outspoken
criticism of naval abuses he became unpopular with
those in authority. In 1814 he was arrested and im-
prisoned on a false charge of fraud and degraded from all
his honours, which were afterwards restored to him.
He was one of the first to advocate the application
of steam power to warships. Buried in Westminster
Abbey.

Dyce, William (1806-1864), b. Aberdeen. Historical and
religious painter. Executed frescoes in the House of
Lords, Buckingham Palace, etc.

Edward, Thomas (1814-1886), son of a Fifeshire militiaman;
b. Gosport. Settled as a shoemaker in Banff and became
a noted self-taught naturalist.

Elgin, Thomas Bruce, seventh Earl of (1766-1841). Served
in the army, and held diplomatic appointments. He
made a collection at Athens of remains of Grecian art,
which were brought to England in 18 12 and are now in
the British Museum, where they are known as the
" Elgin Marbles." His son, James Bruce, Earl of
Elgin (1811-1863), negotiated the commercial treaty of
Tientsin with China in 1858, and was again sent to
China to enforce that treaty in i860. The following
year he became Governor-General of India. He died
at Dharmsala in the Punjab.

Eliott, see Heathfield and Minto.

Elphinstone, George Keith, see Keith.

Elphinstone, Mountstuart (1779-1859). Son of the eleventh
Lord Elphinstone. An Indian statesman, Governor of
Bombay. Author of a History of India and other
works.

Erskine, Ebenezer (1680-1754), b. Chirnside, Berwickshire.
Minister of Portmoak in Kinross-shire and afterwards of
Stirling. Founder of the Secession Church under the

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 241

name of the " Associate Presbytery " at Gairney Bridge
in Kinross-shire in 1733. His brother, Ralph (1685-
1752), b. Northumberland, was minister of Dunferm-
line, but left the Established Church to join the Secession
in 1737. Author of Gospel Sonnets and Scripture Songs.

Erskine, Henry (1746-1817), second son of the tenth Earl of
Buchan; b. Edinburgh. Some time Lord Advocate and
Dean of the Faculty of Advocates. He was a leader of
the Edinburgh whigs, a strong supporter of reform, and
a highly gifted and cultured orator. His brother,
Thomas (1750-1823), b. Edinburgh, also a whig leader,
served for some time in the navy and in the army,
afterwards studied law, and had an eminently distin-
guished career. In 1806 he was raised to the peerage
as Baron Erskine, and was for a short time Lord
Chancellor.

Erskine, John (1695-1768). Professor of Scots Law in
Edinburgh. Author of the Principles of the Law of
Scotland and the Institutes of the Law of Scotland. His
son, the Rev. John Erskine, D.D. (1721-1803), was col-
league of Dr. Robertson, the historian, as minister of
the Old Greyfriars Church, Edinburgh, and leader of
the evangelical party.

Erskine, Thomas (1788-1870), of Linlathen, near Dundee.
Educated for the law, which he abandoned for the study
of theology. He published several religious works, a
cardinal point of his creed being the universal salvation
of mankind.

Fairbairn, Sir William (1789-1874), b. Kelso. A great
engineer, took a leading part in the construction of sea-
going vessels of iron.

Falconer, Hugh(i8o8-i865), b. Forres. Entered the Bengal
medical service, and wrote on Indian botany and palaeon-
tology. He made the first experiments in growing
tea in India.

Falconer, William (1732-1769), b. Edinburgh, son of a
barber. Became a sailor. Author of a poem called
" The Shipwreck," etc.

Ferguson, Adam, LL.D. (1723-1816), b. Logierait in Perth-

Q

242 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

shire. Became chaplain to the Black Watch and was
present at the Battle of Fontenoy. Professor first of
Natural Philosophy'and afterwards of Moral Philosophy
at Edinburgh University. Author of several historical
and philosophical works. The only meeting between
Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott took place in
Professor Ferguson's house in Edinburgh in the winter
of 1786-1787.

Ferguson, James (1710-1776), b. Rothiemay, Banffshire. A
self-taught astronomer. Author of several scientific
works.

Ferguson, Patrick (1744-1780), b. Pitfour, Aberdeenshire.
Served in the army and invented the breech-loading
rifle.

Fergusson, James (1808-1886), b. Ayr. Author of a History
of Architecture (1865-1876), Stone Monuments (1872), etc.

Fergusson, Robert (1750-17 74), b. Edinburgh. Scottish
poet.

Ferrier, James Frederick (1808-1864), b. Edinburgh. Pro-
fessor of Moral Philosophy at St. Andrews and a writer
on metaphysics and philosophy. His aunt, Susan
Edmonstone Ferrier (1 782-1854), b. Edinburgh, was
a successful novelist and enjoyed the friendship of
Sir Walter Scott.

Fettes, Sir William (1 750-1836), b. Edinburgh. Lord
Provost of Edinburgh; left £166,000 to found Fettes
College.

Findlater, Andrew, LL.D. (1810-1885), b. near Aberdour, in
Aberdeenshire. Editor of the first edition of Chambers's
Encyclopedia (1861-1868) and author of several manuals
on scientific subjects.

Fletcher, Andrew (1655-1716), of Saltoun, East Lothian.
His early life was spent largely in travel and adventure,
and he took part in Monmouth's rebellion in 1685.
He was leader of the party known as the Squadrone
Volante in the last Scottish Parliament and opposed the
union with England. He was the author of some
political works, and is described as " a sure friend, and
an irreconcilable enemy — who would lose his life readily

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES .. 243

to serve his country and would not do a base thing to
save it."

Forbes, Alexander Penrose (1817-1875), b. Edinburgh.
Bishop of Brechin. Author of Kalendars of Scottish
Saints (1872).

Forbes, Duncan (1685-1747), b. Culloden or Bunchrew, near
Inverness. Lord Advocate and President of the Court
of Session. Succeeded his brother in the family estates
of Culloden. A far-seeing and patriotic statesman.
Opposed the Jacobites in 1715 and 1745, and was the
first to propose the raising of Highland regiments.

Forbes, Robert (1708-1775), b. Rayne, Aberdeenshire.
Bishop of Ross and Caithness. Author of The Lyon
in Morning, which consists of ten volumes of MS., con-
taining matter relating to " the '45." Important
extracts from it were published by Robert Chambers
in 1834.

Forbes, Sir William, Bart., of Pitsligo (1739-1806), b. Edin-
burgh. Founder of what is now the Union Bank of
Scotland.

Forsyth, Rev. Alexander John, LL.D. (1769-1843), b. Bel-
helvie, in Aberdeenshire, where he became minister in
succession to his father. Invented the application of
the detonating principle in fire-arms, which was followed
by the adoption in 1840 of the percussion cap in the
British army.

Foulis, Robert (1707-1776), b. Glasgow. Became printer
to the University of Glasgow and issued editions of the
classics which were famous for their accuracy and
beauty. Along with his brother Andrew (1712-1775)
he established a School of Art in Glasgow which pro-
duced a great many prints, statues, oil paintings, etc.,
but financially it proved a failure.

Fraser, Simon, see Lovat.

Galt, John (1779-1839), b. Irvine. Novelist. Author of
many works of fiction, in which Scottish village life is
faithfully depicted, with humour, feeling, and a perfect
mastery of the Scots dialect.

Gardiner, Colonel James (1688-1745), b. Carriden, Linlith-

244 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

gowshire. Served under Marlborough and was killed
at the Battle of Prestonpans. He was noted for his
piety, and his life was written in 1747 by the English
Nonconformist divine, Dr. Philip Doddridge.

Ged, William (1690-1749), b. Edinburgh. Inventor of
stereotyping about 1725.

Geddes, Andrew (1783-1844), b. Edinburgh. A noted artist
and portrait painter.

Gifford, Adam (1820-1887), b. Edinburgh. Became a
Scottish judge as Lord Gifford, and by his will left large
sums of money to the Scottish universities to endow
undogmatic lectureships in theology.

Gillespie, James (1726-1797), b. Roslin (?). Snuff manu-
facturer in Edinburgh; left money to found a hospital
and school in that city.

Gillespie, Thomas (1708-1774), b. Duddingston, near Edin-
burgh. Minister of Carnock, near Dunfermline, and
founder in 1752 of the Relief Synod.

Gilray, James (1757-1815). Son of a Lanark soldier, but
born in Chelsea. A famous caricaturist.

Glas, John (1695-1773), b. Auchtermuchty, in Fifeshire.
Minister of Tealing, near Dundee, and founder of a small
religious sect called the Glassites or Sandemanians, from
his son-in-law, Robert Sandeman (1718-1771). The
great scientist, Michael Faraday, was a devout member
of this sect.

Glen, William (1789-1826), b. Glasgow. A minor poet.
Author of the well-known Jacobite song, " Wae's me for
Prince Charlie."

Glenelg, Charles Grant, Baron (1778-1866), b. Calcutta, of
Scottish parentage. Had a distinguished parliamentary
career and was raised to the peerage in 1835.

Gordon, Alexander, second Duke of (i678?-i728). Jacobite;
was at Sheriff muir; married in 1706 Henrietta Mordaunt
(d. 1760), daughter of the celebrated general, the Earl
of Peterborough. She did much to improve agriculture
on her husband's estates in Morayshire. Other land-
owners in the north followed her example in the face of
much opposition from their farmers.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 245

Gordon, Lord George (1751-1793), b. London, son of the third
Duke of Gordon. Served for some time in the navy and
afterwards entered Parliament. He was leader in the
Anti-Roman Catholic agitation, which led to the Gordon
Riots in London in 1780. For this he was tried on a
charge of high treason but was acquitted.

Gordon, Sir John Watson (1788-1864), b. Edinburgh. One
of the most famous of Scottish portrait painters.

Gordon, Lord Lewis (d. 1754). Son of the second Duke of
Gordon; was one of the Jacobite leaders in 1745.

Gow, Neil (1 727-1807), b. near Dunkeld. A famous violin
player, and the composer of many tunes.

Graham, Dougal (i724?-i779), b. Raploch, near Stirling.
Joined Prince Charlie's army and was at Culloden.
Was for many years bellman of Glasgow. Author of
numerous chapbooks, and of a history in doggerel verse
of " the '45."

Graham, Thomas, see Lyndock, Lord.

Grahame, James (1 765-181 1), b. Glasgow. Studied law but
subsequently became a clergyman of the Church of
England. Author of several poems, the best known of
which is " The Sabbath " (1804).

Grant, Anne (1755-1838), b. Glasgow, daughter of Duncan
McVicar, an army officer, and married the Rev. James
Grant, minister of Laggan, Inverness-shire. Author of
several poems and other works. She had an intimate
and appreciative knowledge of the folklore and language
of the Highlanders.

Grant, Charles, see Glenelg, Lord.

Grant, Sir Francis (1803-1878), b. Edinburgh. Studied for
the Scottish bar, but became a noted portrait painter.
His brother, Sir James Hope Grant (1808-1875), b.
Kilgraston, Perthshire, a distinguished soldier, served
in the Indian Mutiny and conducted the expedition
against China in i860.

Grant, James (1822-1887), b. Edinburgh. Served for a
short time in the army. A well-known military
novelist.

Grant, Colonel James Augustus (1827-1892), b. Nairn.

246 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

Served with distinction in India during the Mutiny, and
in i860- 1863 explored the sources of the Nile along with
another Indian officer, J. H. Speke.

Grant, Sir Patrick (1804-1895), b. Auchterblair, Inverness-
shire. A distinguished soldier, served in India and rose
to the rank of Field-Marshal.

Gray, David (1838-1861), b. near Kirkintilloch. A minor
poet. Author of Luggie and other Poems.

Gregory, John (1724-1773), b. Aberdeen, belonged to a
family of eminent scientists. Became Professor of
Medicine, first in Aberdeen and afterwards in Edinburgh.
His son, James (1753-1821), b. Aberdeen, became Pro-
fessor of Medicine in Edinburgh, and he was the com-
pounder of " Gregory's Mixture." James's son, William
(1803-1858), b. Edinburgh, was Professor of Chemistry
in Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Edinburgh.

Guthrie, Rev. Thomas, D.D. (1803- 187 3), b. Brechin. A
minister of the Free Church in Edinburgh. A great
orator and an earnest advocate of temperance and other
social reforms. Author of several religious and social
works, including an autobiography.

Haddington, Thomas Hamilton, sixth Earl of (1680-1735).
Member of the Squadrone Volante. Fought on the
Royalist side at Sheriffmuir. Wrote a treatise on
forest trees which was not published until 1761. He
married Helen, daughter of John Hope, of Hopetoun,
Haddingtonshire, and with her encouragement and
assistance he greatly improved the agriculture of his
estates and was one of the first landowners in Scotland
to begin tree-planting. He planted Binning Wood, near
Berwick, about 1707.

Hailes, David Dalrymple, Lord (1726-1792), b. Edinburgh.
Became a judge of the Court of Session as Lord Hailes.
Author of several historical and antiquarian works.

Haldane, James Alexander (1768- 1851), b. Dundee.
Served for some years in the navy. He accompanied
the Rev. Charles Simeon, of Cambridge, on an evangel-
istic tour through Scotland and afterwards became the
pastor of an independent congregation in Edinburgh.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 247

Author of pamphlets which were very widely read. His
elder brother, Robert (1764-1842), b. London, but
educated in Dundee and Edinburgh, served for some
time in the navy, but settled young on an estate which
he possessed near Stirling and devoted the rest of his life
to religious and philanthropic works.

Hall, Basil (1 788-1844), b. Edinburgh. Served in the navy
and became a writer of travels.

Hamilton, James Douglas, fourth Duke of, Earl of Arran
(1658-1712). One of the leaders of the Jacobite party
in Scotland at the time of the union. Killed in a famous
duel with Lord Mohun.

Hamilton, William (1704-1754), b. probably at Bangour, in
Linlithgowshire. Joined the rebellion of 1745, but
was afterwards permitted to succeed to the family
estate of Bangour. A poet, author of " The Braes of
Yarrow."

Hamilton, Sir William (1788-1856), b. Glasgow. Educated
at Balliol College, Oxford, and called to the Scottish
bar. Professor of Logic and Metaphysics in Edinburgh
University. One of the " Scottish Philosophers."

Hannay, James (182 7- 187 3), b. Dumfries. Author of several
novels. Some time editor of the Edinburgh Courant.

Harvey, Sir George (1806-1876), b. St. Ninians, near
Stirling. A distinguished artist.

Heathfield, George Augustus Eliott, Lord (1717-1790), b.
Stobs, in Roxburghshire. A distinguished soldier.
Served in the War of the Austrian Succession and in the
Seven Years' War, and defended Gibraltar against
Spain and France, 17 79-1 783.

Henry, Robert (1718-1790), b. St. Ninians, Stirlingshire.
An Edinburgh minister. Author of a History of Great
Britain (1771-1773).

Herd, David (1732-1810), b. Marykirk, Kincardineshire.
Clerk in Edinburgh. Editor of a collection of Ancient
Scottish Ballads (1776).

Hogg, James (1770-1835), b. parish of Ettrick, Selkirkshire.
A poet, known as the " Ettrick Shepherd."

Home, Henry, see Karnes, Lord.

248 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

Home, Rev. John (1722-1808), b. Leith. Sometime minister
of Athelstaneford, near Edinburgh. Afterwards private
secretary to _the_ Earl of Bute. Wrote plays, the best
known of which is Douglas (1754).

Horner, Francis (1778-1817), b. Edinburgh. A leading
Edinburgh whig, and one of the contributors to the
Edinburgh Review.

Howie, John (1735-1793), b. Lochgoin, Ayrshire. Farmer
at Lochgoin, near Kilmarnock. Author of The Scots
Worthies (1774), an account of the sufferings of the
Covenanters.

Hume. David (1711-1776), b. and d. Edinburgh. Philosopher
and historian.

Hume, Joseph (1777-1855), b. Montrose. Became surgeon
under the East India Company, afterwards Member
of Parliament. A political philosopher and social
reformer.

Hume, Sir Patrick, see Marchmont, Earl of.

Hunter, William (17 18-1783), b. Long Calderwood, East
Kilbride, Lanarkshire. A distinguished surgeon and
anatomist. His brother, John (1 728-1 793), b. Long
Calderwood, was also a distinguished surgeon and
anatomist.

Hyslop, James (1798-1827), b. Kirkconnel, Dumfriesshire.
A minor poet, author of " The Cameronian's Dream "
(1821).

Inglis, Rev. John, D.D. (1763-1834), b. in Perthshire,
minister of the Greyfriars Church of Edinburgh, and for
many years leader of the moderate party in the Estab-
lished Church.

Innes, Cosmo (1798-1874), b. Durris, in Kincardineshire.
Professor of Constitutional Law and History in the
University of Edinburgh. Author of several historical
and antiquarian works.

Innes, Thomas (1662- 1744), b. Drumgask, Aberdeenshire.
Jacobite and Roman Catholic priest. Author of a
Critical Essay on the Ancient Inhabitants of Scotland
(1729), which is the earliest attempt at a science of
history.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 249

Irving, Edward (1792-1834), b. Annan. A preacher of great
power, became assistant to Dr. Chalmers in Glasgow.
In 1822 he became minister of the Scottish Church in
London, but was deposed on a charge of heresy. He
then founded a new communion known as " The Catholic
Apostolic Church."

Jamieson, Rev. John, D.D. (1759-1838), b. Glasgow.
Minister of a secession congregation in Forfar and
afterwards in Edinburgh. Author of an Etymological
Dictionary of the Scottish Language (1808- 1809).

Jeffrey, Francis, Lord (1773-1850), b. Edinburgh. Lord
Advocate and afterwards judge of the Court of Session.
A leader of the Scottish whigs. Best known as a
literary critic and editor of the Edinburgh Review.

Johnson, James (d. 181 1). Native of Ettrick. Engraver
and publisher of The Scots Musical Museum to which
Robert Burns was a contributor.

Johnston, Alexander Keith, LL.D. (1804-1871), b. near
Penicuik, Midlothian. An eminent modern geographer.
Author of the Royal Atlas, etc. His son, Alexander
Keith (1844-1879), b. Edinburgh, was also an eminent
geographer.

Johnstone, James, Chevalier de (1719-1800?), b. Edinburgh.
Was aide-de-camp to Prince Charles at Culloden and
afterwards entered the French service. Left interesting
Memoirs of the Rebellion in 1745 and 1746.

Jones, Paul (1 747-1 792), b. Arbigland, Kirkcudbrightshire.
(His real name was John Paul.) Went to sea, joined
the Americans in the War of Independence, and per-
formed some daring exploits, including a descent on the
Scottish coast. He afterwards served in the French
navy, and subsequently entered the Russian service and
became Rear-admiral of the Black Sea fleet. He died
in Paris. He is described as a man of excessive vanity
and detestable moral character.

Kames, Henry Home, Lord (1696-1782), b. Karnes, Berwick-
shire. A well-known Scottish judge, writer on Scots
law and philosophy.

Kay, John (1742-1826), b. near Dalkeith. Barber at

250 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

Dalkeith and Edinburgh. Miniature painter and
caricaturist. Author of Series of Original Portraits
and Caricature Etchings with biographical matter

(1837).
Keith, George Keith Elphinstone, Viscount (1 746-1823),

b. Elphinstone Tower, Stirling, son of the tenth Lord
Elphinstone. A distinguished naval officer. Com-
manded the expedition which took the Cape of Good
Hope in 1796.

Keith, James, Marshal (1696-1758), b. Inverugie Castle,
Aberdeenshire, son of William, ninth Earl Marischal
(d. 1712). Engaged with his brother George, tenth
Earl Marischal (1693-1778), in the Jacobite risings in
1 7 15 and 1 7 19. He afterwards entered the Russian
service, which he left in 1747 to join Frederick the Great,
who gave him at once the rank of Field-Marshal and
greatly relied on his military genius. He was killed in
battle at Hochkirch.

Kenmure, William Gordon, Viscount (d. 17 16). Beheaded
for taking part in the rising of 17 15.

Kilmarnock, William Boyd, Earl of (1 704-1 746). Joined
the rebellion of 1745, taken prisoner at Culloden, and
beheaded on Tower Hill.

Laidlaw, William (1780-1845), b. Blackhouse, in Selkirk-
shire. Friend and amanuensis of Sir Walter Scott.
Author of the well-known ballad " Lucy's Flittin'."

Laing, David, LL.D. (1 793-1878), b. Edinburgh. An
eminent antiquary. Secretary of the Bannatyne Club,
which was founded in 1823, and so called after George
Bannatyne (1545-1608), a collector of fifteenth and
sixteenth-century poetry.

Laing, Malcolm (1762-1818), b. Orkney. Historian. Wrote
on the poems of Ossian against Macpherson.

Lauder, Sir Thomas Dick, Bart. (1784-1848), of Fountain-
hall, Haddingtonshire. Served for some time in the
Cameron Highlanders. Author of The Wolf of Bade-
noch, a Romance (1827), Morayshire Floods (1830),
Legendary Tales of the Highlands (1841), etc.

Leslie, Sir John (1766-1832), b. Largo, Fifeshire, an

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 251

eminent scientist. Professor of Mathematics and
afterwards of Natural Philosophy in Edinburgh
University.

Livingstone, David (1813-1873), b. Blantyre, Lanarkshire.
An African missionary, traveller, and explorer. Died
in Africa, buried in Westminster Abbey.

Lockhart, George (1673-1731), of Carnwath, in Lanarkshire.
An ardent Jacobite leader in the British Parliament of
the party that attempted to repeal the union. His
Memoirs form an important source of information about
the politics of his time, The Lockhart Papers were
published in 1817.

Lockhart, John Gibson (1794-1854), b. Cambusnethan
Manse, Lanarkshire. Studied law and was called to
the Scottish bar, but gave up law for literature. One of
the chief supporters of Blackwood's Magazine and
editor of the Quarterly Review. Author of many works,
including a well-known biography of Sir Walter Scott,
whose eldest daughter, Sophia, he married. His eldest
son was the Hugh Little John of Scott's Tales of a Grand-
father.

Logan, Rev. John (1 748-1 788), b. Soutra, Midlothian.
Became minister of South Leith. A minor poet. Author
of a version of the " Braes of Yarrow." Claimed to be
author of the " Ode to the Cuckoo," which is usually
ascribed to Michael Bruce.

Lovat, Simon Fraser, Lord (1667-1747), b. Fannich (?),
Ross-shire, M.A. of Aberdeen. A well-known Highland
chief, secured by violent means the succession to the
estates of his cousin, late Lord Lovat. Outlawed and
fled to France, returned and rallied his clan to the
government in 17 15, for which he received a full pardon
and an acknowledgment of his claim to the Lovat
estates. Played a double part in 1745, was arrested
and brought to London for trial, and was the last man
beheaded at the Tower of London.

Lyell, Sir Charles, Bart. (1797-1875), b. Kinnordy, Forfar-
shire. An eminent geologist. Buried in Westminster
Abbe

252 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

Lynedoch, Thomas Graham, Lord (1748-1843), of Bal-
gowan, Perthshire. A distinguished soldier; served
in the Peninsular War.

McAdam, John Loudon (1 756-1836), b. Ayr. Inventor of a
system of roadmaking, known as " macadamising."

Macaulay, Thomas Babington, Lord (1800-1859), b.
Leicestershire, of Scottish ancestry. Wrote for the
Edinburgh Review. M.P. for Edinburgh. Author of
Lays of Ancient Rome (1842), History of England from
the Accession of James II. (1848-1855), etc.

McCheyne, Robert Murray (1813-1843), b. Edinburgh.
Minister at Dundee. Published sermons and hymns.

McCosh, James (1811-1894), b. Carskeoch, Ayrshire.
Minister at Arbroath and at Brechin, and afterwards
joined the Free Church. President of Princeton College
in the United States 1868- 1888. Author of The Scottish
Philosophy (1875) an^ other philosophical works; was a
representative of the Scottish philosophy.

McCrie, Rev. Thomas, D.D. (1772-1835), b. Duns, in Berwick-
shire. Became minister of an anti-burgher congregation
in Edinburgh; an ecclesiastical historian. His son,
Thomas, D.D. and LL.D. (1 798-1875), also a historian,
was professor in a Presbyterian College in London.

McCulloch, Horatio (1805-1867), b. Glasgow. A celebrated
painter of Highland landscapes.

MacCulloch, John (1773-1835), b. Guernsey. An army
surgeon, also a geologist. Author of Description of the
Western Islands of Scotland (181 9), etc.

McCulloch, John Ramsay (1879-1864), b. Whithorn,
Wigtonshire. A political economist.

Macdonald, Flora (1722-1790), b. South Uist. Noted for
the successful manner in which she rescued Prince
Charles from his pursuers in June 1746. In 1750 she
married Allan Macdonald, of Kingsburgh in Skye, and
in 1773 entertained Dr. Samuel Johnson, who describes
her as of "middle stature, soft features, gentle manners,
and elegant presence." In 1774 she went to America
with her husband, who served as Brigadier-General in
the British army during the War of Independence. At

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 253

the close of the war they returned to Kingsburgh. They
had a large family and five of their sons served with
distinction in the army and navy.

Macdonald, George (1824-1905), b. Huntly, Aberdeenshire.
Scottish poet and novelist.

Macdonald, John, D.D. (1779-1849), b. Reay, Caithness.
" The Apostle of the North." Minister of the parish of
Urquhart, near Dingwall, and one of the founders of the
Free Church in 1843.

Macdonald, Sir John Alexander (1815-1891), b. Glasgow.
A distinguished Canadian statesman, whose greatest
work was the confederation of the British North
American provinces into the dominion of Canada in
1867.

Macdonell, Alexander (i724?-i76i), thirteenth Chief of
Glengarry (Pickle the Spy). Professed Jacobitism and
was regarded as one of the best of Highlanders, but was
in reality a Hanoverian spy.

McGill, James (1744-1813), b. Glasgow, but emigrated to
Canada. Founded the McGill College in Montreal.

Macgregor, Robert (Rob Roy) (1671-1734), b. Glengyle, in
Perthshire, of good ancestry. A Highland freebooter.
Joined the Earl of Mar's army in 1715, but was in reality
the paid spy of the Duke of Argyll.

Macintosh, Charles (1 766-1843). A Glasgow manufactur-
ing chemist, patented in 1823 the well-known water-
proof cloth invented by Professor James Syme.

Macintyre, Duncan (Duncan Bane) (1724-1812), b. Glen-
orchy, Argyllshire. The greatest of the modern Gaelic
poets.

Mackay, Charles, LL.D. (1814-1889), b. Perth. Editor of
the Illustrated London News ; a popular song writer.

Mackay, Robert (Rob. Donn) (17 14-1787), b. parish of
Durness, Sutherlandshire. A noted Gaelic poet.

Mackenzie, Sir Alexander (i755?-i82o), b. Inverness.
Canadian fur trader. Discovered the Mackenzie
river.

Mackenzie, Alexander (1822-1892), b. Logierait, Perthshire.
A Canadian statesman.

254 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

Mackenzie, Alexander (1838-1898), b. Gairloch. " The
Clan Historian." Author of histories of several High-
land clans.

Mackenzie, Henry (1745-1831), b. Edinburgh. An attorney.
Author of The Man of Feeling (1773), etc.

Mackenzie, John (1806- 1848), b. Gairloch, Ross-shire.
Compiled and edited The Beauties of Gaelic Poetry (1 841),
etc.

Mackenzie, William Forbes (1807-1862). Native Peebles-
shire, for which he became Member of ^Parliament. His
Act for the Regulation of Public Houses in Scotland
was passed in 1853. His brother, Charles Frederic
Mackenzie (1825-1862), Bishop of Central Africa, was a
noted missionary.

Mackintosh, Sir James (1765-1832), b. Aldourie, Inverness-
shire. Recorder of Bombay and afterwards Member
of Parliament. A writer on laws and history.

Mackintosh, William, Brigadier (1 662-1 743), b. Borlum,
Inverness-shire. One of the Jacobite leaders in 17 15.
Took an intelligent interest in agriculture and tree-
planting.

Maclaurin, Colin (1698- 1746), b. Kilmodan, Argyllshire.
An eminent mathematician. Professor of Mathematics
first at Aberdeen and afterwards in Edinburgh.

McLennan, John Ferguson (1827-1881), b. Inverness.
Author of Primitive Marriage (1865), etc.

Macleod, Rev. Norman, D.D. (1812-1872), b. Campbelltown,
Argyllshire. Minister of the Church of Scotland in
Glasgow and one of Queen Victoria's chaplains. Author
of tales, essays, poems, etc.

Maclise, Daniel (1806-1870), son of a Highland soldier
named Macleish, but born at Cork. A noted artist,
painted the well-known frescoes of the " Meeting of
Wellington and Blucher " and the " Death of Nelson "
in the House of Lords.

Macmillan, Daniel (1813-1857), b. Island of Arran. Founded
along with his brother, Alexander (1818-1896), the
publishing firm of Macmillan & Co., London.

Macmillan, John (1670-1753), b. Minnigaff, Kirkcudbright-

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 255

shire. Founded a sect of the Cameronians into the
Reformed Presbyterians.

McNeill, Duncan, see Colonsay, Lord.

Macpherson, James (1736-1796), b. Ruthven, Inverness-
shire. He published Fingal, an Epic Poem in six books
(1762) and Temora, an Epic Poem in eight books (1763).
Macpherson pretended that these were translations of
ancient Gaelic poems by Ossian, who flourished in the
third century. They are now admitted to have been
his own invention.

Macqueen, Robert, see Braxfield, Lord.

Martin, Martin (d. 17 19), b. Isle of Skye. Author of a
Description of the Western Islands of Scotland (1703).

Mallet, David (1698-1765), b. near Crieff, in Perthshire.
(His real name was Malloch.) A writer of poems and
plays. He was befriended by Pope. The authorship
of " Rule Britannia " has been claimed for him, but it is
usually ascribed to James Thomson.

Marchmont, Sir Patrick Hume, Lord Polwarth and after-
wards Earl of Marchmont (1641-1724). A Covenanter.
Lord Chancellor of Scotland. He was one of the chief
supporters of the Treaty of Union in 1707.

Marischal, Earl, see Keith.

Maule, Fox (1801-1874), b. Brechin Castle, in Forfarshire.
Served in the army, was afterwards a whig Member
of Parliament and a supporter of the Free Church.
Succeeded his father as Lord Panmure and his cousin as
eleventh Earl of Dalhousie.

Mavor, Rev. William Fordyce, (1758-1837), b. New Deer,
Aberdeenshire. Became a clergyman and schoolmaster
in Oxfordshire, compiler of what was long a well-known
spelling book.

Meikle, Andrew (1719-1811). Native of Haddingtonshire.
Inventor of the drum threshing mill.

Melville, Henry Dundas, Viscount, and Baron Dunira
(1742-1811), b. Edinburgh, son of Lord Arniston.
Educated for the Scottish bar, M.P. for Midlothian
1774, became Lord Advocate in 1775, and for the next
thirty years, though holding various offices in the

256 ' SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

government, he had the administration of Scottish
affairs in his hands. He was an ardent tory and the
ablest and most loyal of the supporters of the younger
Pitt. Raised to the peerage in 1802. Shortly after-
wards he retired from public life, and lived chiefly at
Dunira, near Comrie in Perthshire, and in Edinburgh.

Mickle, William Julius (1735-1788), b. Langholm, in Dum-
friesshire. Minor poet. Author of " There's nae luck
aboot the house."

Mill, James (1773-1836), b. near Montrose, received an
appointment in the London office of the East India
Company. A writer on political, philosophical, and
historical subjects. He was the father of the eminent
philosopher John Stuart Mill (1806-1873).

Miller, Hugh (1802-1856), b. Cromarty. Wrote on geology
and other subjects. Was one of the leading supporters
of the Free Church.

Miller, Patrick (1731-1815), of Dalswinton, Dumfriesshire.
Landlord of the farm occupied by Robert Burns at
Ellisland. One of the early projectors of steam naviga-
tion. He made experiments in steam navigation on
Dalswinton Loch in 1788, and afterwards constructed
a small model steamboat which was tried on the Thames
about 1793.

Minto, Sir Gilbert Elliot, Earl of (1751-1814), b. Edinburgh.
Educated for the English bar, entered Parliament, and
became Governor-General of India in 1806. His aunt,
Jean Elliot (1727-1805), was author of a version of
" The Flowers of the Forest."

Mitchell, Sir Thomas Livingstone (1792-1855), b. Craigend,
Stirlingshire. Served in the Peninsular War and after-
wards became an Australian explorer.

Moffat, Robert (1795-1883), b. Ormiston, East Lothian.
A South African missionary. David Livingstone was
married to his daughter.

Moir, David Macbeth (1796-1851), b. Musselburgh, and
became a physician there. Wrote poems for Blackwood's
Magazine under the pen name of " Delta."

Monboddo, James Burnet, Lord (1714-1799), b. Monboddo

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES • 257

House, Kincardineshire. Educated for the Scottish
bar and became a 'Scottish judge. A philosophical
writer who anticipated the Darwinian theory of the
descent of man.
Monro, Alexander (1697-1767), b. London, of Scottish
ancestry. An eminent professor of anatomy and
surgery in Edinburgh University, where he was
succeeded by his son, Alexander Monro (1733-1817),
who again was succeeded by his son, Alexander Monro

(i773-i8S9).

Montgomery, James (1771-1854), b. Irvine, Ayrshire.
Author of several poems and hymns. Was a journalist
in Sheffield.

Moore, John, M.D. (1729-1802), b. Stirling, son of a minister.
Became a physician first in Glasgow and afterwards in
London. Author of novels and other works. His
eldest son. Sir John Moore (1 761-1809), b. Glasgow, was
a distinguished general. He was a Scottish M.P., 1784-
1790. Served in Corsica, West Indies, Holland, Egypt,
Sicily, and Sweden. Introduced a new system of
military drill, manoeuvre, and discipline at Shorncliffe
Camp about 1804, and did much to prepare the
efficiency of the army which Wellington afterwards led
to victory. He was appointed Commander-in-Chief in
the Peninsula in 1808, and killed at the Battle of
Corunna in 1809. " No British commander was ever
more popular with his officers, none have left a more
lasting impress on the troops trained under him."

Morrison^ James (1816-1893), b. Bathgate, Linlithgowshire.
Secession minister at Kilmarnock, founded in 1843 tfte
sect known as the " Evangelical Union."

Morton, Thomas (1781-1832), b. Leith. A Leith shipbuilder
who in 1822 invented the patent slip for docking
vessels.

Motherwell, William (1797-1835), b. Glasgow. Became
Sheriff-clerk-depute of Renfrewshire. An antiquary
and poet and journalist. Author of " Jeanie Morison."

Muir, John, D.C.L., LL.D. (1810-1882), b. Glasgow. Was
in the service of the East India Company, became an

R

258 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

eminent Sanskrit scholar, and founded a chair of Sans-
krit in Edinburgh University in 1862. His brother, Sir
William Muir (1819-1905), b. Glasgow, was Lieutenant-
Governor of the North- West Provinces of India, and an
eminent Arabic scholar. He was Principal of Edinburgh
University.
Munro, Sir Hector (1 726-1805), of Novar, Ross-shire. A

distinguished Indian general.
Munro, Hugh Andrew Johnstone (1819-1885), b. Elgin,
grand-nephew of Sir Hector Munro of Novar. Pro-
fessor of Latin at Cambridge. Editor of the Latin
poet Lucretius, etc.
Munro, Sir Thomas (1761-1827),^. Glasgow. A distinguished

soldier, was Governor of Madras.
Murchison, Sir Roderick Impey (1 792-1871), b. Tarradale,
Ross-shire. Served in the Peninsular War. A dis-
tinguished geologist.
Murdock, William (1 754-1839), b. Auchinleck, Ayrshire.
Inventor of coal gas, which was first used for lighting
purposes in London in 1803.
Murray, Alexander (1775-1813), b. parish of Urr, Kirkcud-
brightshire. Began life as a shepherd, became minister
of Urr, and afterwards Professor of Oriental Languages
in Edinburgh.
Murray, Lord George, see Atholl.

Murray, Sir John, Bart., of Broughton (1715-1777). Native
of Peeblesshire, was secretary to Prince Charles in 1745,
captured after Culloden, and saved his life by betray-
ing his fellow Jacobites.
Murray, John (1 745-1 793), b. Edinburgh. Founded the

well-known London publishing firm of John Murray.
Mushet, David (1772-1847), b. Dalkeith. Discovered about
1801 the black-band ironstone, which greatly increased
the iron industry of Scotland, and is now almost the
only ore smelted in Scottish furnaces.
Nairne, Caroline Oliphant, Baroness (1 766-1845), b. Gask,
Perthshire. Married her cousin, Major Nairne, who
afterwards became sixth Lord Nairne. She wrote many
songs, including the " Land of the Leal," " The Laird
o' Cockpen," and " The Auld House."

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 259

Napier, Sir Charles (1786- 1860), b. Merchiston Hall, near
Falkirk. An admiral. Commanded the Baltic fleet
during the Crimean War.

Napier, Sir Charles James (1782-1853), b. Westminster,
cousin of the preceding. A distinguished general.
Served in the Peninsular War. Conquered Scinde in
India in 1843. His brother, Sir William Francis Patrick
Napier (1785-1860), b. Ireland, served in the Peninsular
War, and was author of the well-known History of the
War in the Peninsula (1828-1840).

Napier of Magdala, Robert Cornells Napier, Lord (1810-
1890), b. Ceylon. An Indian soldier. Commanded the
expedition to Abyssinia in 1868.

Napier, Robert (1791-1876), b. Dumbarton. Constructor
of the first marine engine 1823. With his cousin, David
Napier(i79o-i869), did much to develop shipbuilding on
the Clyde. One of the founders of the Cunard Steam
Packet Company 1839.

Nasmyth, Alexander (1758-1840),*. Edinburgh. Portraitand
landscape painter, best known by his portrait of Robert
Burns. His son, Patrick (1787-1831), was a noted land-
scape painter, and another son, James (1808- 1890), b.
Edinburgh, was the inventor of the steam-hammer in
1839.

Neill, James George Smith (1810-1857), b. near Ayr.
Served as colonel in the Indian Mutiny and was killed in
the advance on Lucknow.

Neilson, James Beaumont (1 792-1865), b. Shettleston, in
Lanarkshire. Inventor of the hot-blast furnace for
smelting iron about 1825.

Nelson, Thomas (1780-1861), native of Stirlingshire.
Founder of the Edinburgh publishing firm of Thomas
Nelson & Sons. His son, William (1816-1887), restored
the Old Parliament Hall in Edinburgh.

Nicoll, Robert (1814-1837), b. Little Tullybeltane, Perth-
shire. Became editor of a radical newspaper in Leeds.
Wrote Songs and Lyrics.

Ogilvie, John, LL.D. (1 797-1867), b. Marnoch, Banffshire.
Author of The Imperial Dictionary (1847- 1850).

260 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

Oliphant, Laurence (1829-1888), b. Capetown, of Scottish
ancestry. Was secretary to the Earl of Elgin, whom he
accompanied to China. Wrote books of travel, etc.

Oliphant, Mrs. Margaret (nee Wilson) (1828-1897), b. Wally-
ford, near Musselburgh. A well-known writer of novels
and biographies.

Park, Mungo (1771-1805), b. Foulshiels, in Selkirkshire. A
great traveller and explorer. Author of Travels in the
Interior of Africa (1799), etc.

PATERSON,Robert(i7i5-i8oi), b. Hawick. " Old Mortality."
A stonemason, devoted the last forty years of his life
to the repairing and erecting of gravestones to Coven-
anters.

Paterson, William (1658-1719), b. parish of Tinwald, Dum-
friesshire. A far-seeing financier and free trader.
Founder of the Bank of England in 1694 and was one of
the promoters of the Darien scheme.

Paton, Sir Noel (1821-1901), b. Dunfermline. A notable
artist.

Perth, James Drummond, fourth Earl of (1648-17 16), was
created titular Duke of Perth by the exiled King James.
His son, James (1675-1720), second Duke of Perth,
commanded the Jacobite cavalry at Sheriffmuir, and
his son, James (1713-1747), third Duke of Perth, "a
brave and good " man, commanded the left wing at
Culloden. The third duke's brother, Lord John
Drummond (d. 1747), was an important man among the
Jacobites and took a prominent part in the " '45."

Phillip, John (1817-1867), b. Aberdeen. A painter of
Scottish and Spanish subjects.

Pitcairne, Archibald (1652-1713). An Edinburgh
physician. A Jacobite and Episcopalian, and a keen
satirist of Presbyterianism. He was one of the first
promoters of Scottish literature.

Playfair, Rev. John (1 748-1819), b. Benvie, near Dundee.
A minister of the Church of Scotland, became Professor
first of Mathematics and then of Natural Philosophy in
Edinburgh University. Was in his time a noted
scientist.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 261

Playfair, Lyon, Lord (1819-1898), b. India. Professor of
Chemistry in Edinburgh. Afterwards a Member of
Parliament. Wrote on chemistry and political
economy.

Porteous, John (d. 1736), b. Edinburgh, son of a tailor.
Enlisted in the army, served in Holland, and about 1715
became captain of the Edinburgh Town Guard. He is
remembered chiefly in connection with the Porteous
Riot in Edinburgh in 1736, when he was hanged by the
mob.

Pringle, Thomas (1789-1834), b. Blaiklaw, in Roxburghshire.
Went to Cape Town where he started a whig newspaper,
which was suppressed by the Governor. He wrote
several poems, the best known of which is " The Scottish
Emigrant's Farewell."

Queensberry, James Douglas, Duke (1662-1711), b. San-
quhar Castle. Educated at Glasgow University. Served
under Dundee, but joined William of Orange in 1688.
Royal Commissioner to the last Scottish Parliament
which passed Treaty of Union. Secretary of State for
Scotland, 1709.

Rae, John (1813-1893), b. Stromness, Orkney. A British
North American traveller and explorer.

Rae, Rev. Peter (1671-1748), b. Dumfries. Minister of Kirk-
connel. Wrote a history of the rebellion of 1715.

Raeburn, Sir Henry (1756-1823), b. Stockbridge, Edinburgh.
Scotland's greatest portrait painter. Among those
whose portraits he painted were Sir Walter Scott, David
Hume, James Boswell, Sir David Baird, Henry Mackenzie,
Neil Gow, Lord Melville, Sir John Sinclair, Lord Jeffrey,
Lord Cockburn, etc.

Ramsay, Allan (1686-1758), b. Leadhills, Lanarkshire. A
well-known poet. His son, Allan (17 13-1784), was a
distinguished artist, and became portrait painter to
King George III.

Ramsay, The Very Rev. Edward Bannerman Burnet, LL.D.
(1 793-1872), b. Aberdeen. Dean of Edinburgh. Author
of Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character (1857), etc.

Ramsay, John ( 1 7 36- 1 8 1 4), of Ochtertyre, in Perthshire . Left

262 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

a valuable work in manuscript on Scotland and Scotsmen
in the Eighteenth Century, which was published in 1888.

Ray, James (ft. 1 745-1 746). Was with the Duke of Cumberland
at Culloden and published A Complete History of the
Rebellion (1746).

Reid, Rev. Thomas, D.D. (1710-1796), b. Strachan Manse,
Kincardineshire. The greatest of the Scottish philo-
sophers. Professor of Philosophy, first in King's
College, Aberdeen, and afterwards in Glasgow University.
Author of Inquiry into the Human Mind (1764) and
other philosophical works.

Reid, Sir William (1791-1858), b. Kinglassie, Fifeshire.
Served with distinction in the Peninsular War, but best
known as a writer on winds and storms.

Rennie, John (1761-1821), b. Phantassie, Haddingtonshire.
A civil engineer and famous bridge builder. His best
known bridges are Waterloo Bridge, Southwark Bridge,
and London Bridge, all on the Thames. London
Bridge was completed in 1831 by his son, Sir John
( 1 794-1847), who was engineer to the Admiralty.

Richardson, Sir John (1787- 1865), b. Dumfries. Served in
the Arctic expeditions of Parry and Franklin, and was
a noted naturalist.

Robertson, George Croom (1842-1892), b. Aberdeen. Pro-
fessor of Mental Philosophy and Logic at University
College, London. A noted psychologist and philo-
sopher.

Robertson, Joseph (1810-1866), b. Aberdeen. A celebrated
antiquary. One of the founders of the Aberdeen
Spalding Club (1839), so called after John Spalding, an
Aberdeen diarist of the time of Charles I. and the
Commonwealth.

Robertson, Rev. William, D.D. (1721-1793), b. Borthwick
Manse, Midlothian. Principal of Edinburgh University
and leader of the moderate party in the Church. A
celebrated historian.

Rob Roy, see Macgregor.

Ross, Sir John (1777-1856), b. Inch Manse, Wigtonshire,
An Arctic explorer. His nephew, Sir James Clerk Ross

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 263

(1800-1862), also an Arctic explorer, discovered the North
Magnetic Pole in 1831.

Ross, William (1762-1790), b. Gairloch, Ross-shire. A
Gaelic poet.

Rosslyn, Alexander Wedderburn, Earl of (1733-1805), b.
Edinburgh. Studied law and entered Parliament. He
was Chief Justice, as Lord Loughborough, in Lord
North's administration, and was for a time Lord
Chancellor under the younger Pitt.

Roy, William (1726-1790), b. Miltonhead, Lanarkshire. A
Major-General. Conducted the first trigonometrical
survey of the United Kingdom, and was author of a
valuable work on the Military Antiquities of the Romans
in Britain (1793).

Ruddiman, Thomas (1674-1757), b. Boyndie, Banffshire.
Printer to the University of Edinburgh, and keeper of
the Advocates' Library. A Latin grammarian. Did
much to promote learning and literature in Scotland.

Runciman, Alexander (1736-1785), b. Edinburgh. A
historical painter.

Ruskin, John (1819-1900), b. London, of Scottish parents.
A celebrated writer and art critic.

Russell, John Scott (1808-1882), b. near Glasgow. An
engineer. Inventor of the " wave principle " of ship-
building. Built a large ship called the Great Eastern.

Sandeman, Robert, see Glas, John.

Scott, David (1806-1849), b. Edinburgh. A noted painter.
His brother, William Bell Scott (1811-1890), was a poet
and painter.

Scott, Rev. Hew, D.D. (1791-1872),^. Haddington. Minister,
Anstruther. Compiler of the Fasti Ecdesice Scoticance
(1866-1871), giving brief biographical sketches of the
parish ministers of Scotland since the Reformation.

Scott, Michael (1 789-1835), b. Cowlairs, Glasgow. Writer
of fiction and contributor to Blackwood's Magazine.

Scott, Sir Walter (1771-1832), b. Edinburgh. Poet and
novelist.

Selkirk, Alexander (1676-1721), b. Largo, Fife. Lived alone
for four years on the island Juan Fernandez on the west

264 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

coast of South America and said to have been the
original of Robinson Crusoe.

Sellar, William Young (1825-1890), b. near Golspie, in
Sutherlandshire. Professor of Latin in Edinburgh
University. Author of works on the Roman poets.

Shairp, John Campbell (1819-1885), b. Houston House,
Linlithgowshire. Principal of St. Andrews University
and Professor of Poetry at Oxford. Author of several
works on poetry, etc.

Simpson, James Young (1811-1870), b. Bathgate, in Linlith-
gowshire. An eminent Edinburgh physician and
professor. Was the first to use chloroform as an
anaesthetic.

Simson, Robert (1687-1768),*. Ayrshire. Professor of Mathe-
matics in Glasgow University. His Elements of Euclid
(1756) was the basis of nearly all editions of Euclid for
oyer a century. He was the nephew of the Rev. John
Simson (1668-1740), Professor of Divinity in Glasgow
University, who was suspended from all ecclesiastical
functions by the General Assembly in 1729 for heterodox
teaching on the Incarnation. The " Simson heresy "
was a very noted one at the time.

Sinclair, Sir John, Bart. (1754-1835), b. Thurso Castle,
Caithness. Sat in Parliament for over thirty years
and was for half a century a leading man in the affairs
of Scotland. Author of many works, including the
Statistical Account of Scotland (1 791-1799), comprising
a description of every parish in Scotland, mainly by the
help of the parish ministers.

Sinclair, John (1683-1750). Master of Sinclair, son of
Henry, eighth Lord Sinclair (in Fifeshire). Served
under Marlborough in Flanders, and took part in the
rising of 17 15. Wrote Memoirs of the Rebellion of 17 15,
printed in 1858.

Skene, William Forbes, D.C.L. (1809-1892), b. Inverie, on
Loch Nevis, Inverness-shire. Historian and antiquary.
Wrote on Scottish and Gaelic subjects.

Smeaton, John (1724-1792), b. near Leeds, of Scottish ex-
traction. Civil engineer. Made the Forth and Clyde

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 265

Canal, built the third Eddystone Lighthouse, and many
bridges, including those still standing at Banff, Perth,
and Coldstream.

Smiles, Samuel, M.D., LL.D. (1812-1904), b. Haddington.
Author of Self Help (1859), Lives of the Engineers
(1861), and other works, including several bio-
graphies.

Smith, Adam (1723-1790), b. Kirkcaldy. Educated at
Glasgow and Oxford. Professor of Logic in Glasgow
University and afterwards of Moral Philosophy in
Edinburgh University. Author of an Inquiry into the
Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776) and
other works.

Smith, Sydney (1771-1845), b. Woodford, Essex. Canon of
St. Paul's Cathedral. One of the founders of the Edin-
burgh Review.

Smith, William Robertson (1846- 1894), b. Keig, Aberdeen-
shire. A learned theologian and orientalist. Professor
of Arabic and University Librarian at Cambridge.

Smollett, Tobias George (1721-1771), b. Dalquhurn, Dum-
bartonshire. A great novelist.

Somerville, Mrs. Mary (1780-1872), b. Jedburgh, daughter
of Admiral Sir William Fairfax. Married Dr. William
Somerville of the Army Medical Board. She was a
well-known writer on natural science.

Spottiswoode, Alicia Ann (1811-1900), wife of Lord John
Scott, son of the Duke of Buccleuch. Poetess and
author of " Annie Laurie."

Stair, Sir John Dalrymple, Earl of (1648-1707) (Stair in
Ayrshire). Lord Advocate of Scotland under William
III. Restored Presbyterianism in the Church of
Scotland after the Revolution. On him rests the chief
blame for the Massacre of Glencoe. He was one of the
chief supporters of the Treaty of Union. His son, John
Dalrymple, Earl of Stair (1673-1747), b. Edinburgh,
better known as Marshal Stair, served under the
Duke of Marlborough, and commanded the army at
Dettingen until George II. took command in person.
During the reign of George I. he was ambassador to

266 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

Paris, where he did much to counteract the schemes
and plans of the Jacobites.

Steell, Sir John (1804-1891), b. Aberdeen. A sculptor.

Stephenson, George (1781-1848), b. near Newcastle-on-Tyne,
of Roxburghshire parentage. Built the first locomotive
in 1814. Constructed the Stockton and Darlington
(1825) and the Liverpool and Manchester (1830) railways.
His son, Robert (1803-1859), was also a noted engineer.

Sterling, John (1806-1843), b. Karnes Castle, Bute. Was
ordained a deacon of the Church of England, but gave up
the Church for literature. He is best remembered as the
friend of Thomas Carlyle, who wrote a biography of him.

Stevenson, Robert (1772-1850), b. Glasgow. An engineer
and builder of lighthouses, including the Bell Rock
Lighthouse, 1807-1812. His grandson, Robert Louis
Balfour Stevenson (1850-1894), b. Edinburgh, was a
distinguished novelist.

Stewart, Dugald (1753-1828), b. Edinburgh, son of the Rev.
Matthew Stewart, Professor of Mathematics in Edin-
burgh University. Professor of Moral Philosophy in
Edinburgh University and one of the most noted of the
Scottish philosophers.

Strange, Sir Robert (1 721-1792), b. Kirkwall, Orkney. An
engraver. He joined Prince Charlie in 1745 and fought
at Culloden.

Strathnairn, Hugh Rose, Lord (1801-1885), *• Berlin,
of Highland ancestry. Served with great distinction
in the Indian Mutiny.

Struthers, John (1776-1853), b. East Kilbride, Lanarkshire.
Minor poet. Author of "The Poor Man's Sabbath"
(1804).

Stuart, Sir Charles (1753-1801), son of the Earl of Bute,
who was Prime Minister in the reign of George III.
A distinguished soldier, served in the American War of
Independence, and was the most successful of the British
generals in the early part of the war with France.
Captured Minorca in 1798.

Stuart, John McDougall (1815-1866), b. Dysart, in Fifeshire.
An Australian traveller and explorer.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 267

Stuart, John, LL.D. (1813-1877), b. Forgue, Aberdeenshire.
Antiquary. Author of The Sculptured Stones of Scotland
(1856-1867), The Book of Deer (1869)., etc.

Syme, James (1799-1870), b. Edinburgh. An eminent
surgeon and professor in Edinburgh University. In-
vented in 1818 a method of making waterproof after-
wards patented in 1823 by Charles Mackintosh, a
Glasgow manufacturing chemist.

Symington, William (1763-1831), b. Leadhills, Lanarkshire.
In 1802 he constructed at Grangemouth the Charlotte
Dundas, a tug, the first successful steamboat ever built.
It was used for some time on the Forth and Clyde Canal.

Tait, Archibald Campbell (1811-1882), b. Edinburgh. Arch-
bishop of Canterbury.

Tait, Peter Guthrie (1831-1901), b. Dalkeith. An eminent
mathematician and scientist. Professor of Natural
Philosophy in Edinburgh University.

Tannahill, Robert (1774-1810), b. Paisley. Weaver and
poet. Author of " Jessie the Flower o' Dunblane " and
other well-known songs.

Telford, Thomas (1757-1834), b. Westerkirk, Dumfriesshire.
A civil engineer. Constructed the Caledonian Canal,
more than 1000 miles of road and 1200 bridges in
Scotland, the Dean Bridge, Edinburgh, The Menai
Strait Suspension Bridge, etc.

Tennant, William (1 784-1848), b. Anstruther, Fifeshire.
Professor of Oriental Languages at St. Andrews and a
poet.

Thomson, George (1757-1851), b. Limekilns, Fifeshire.
Author of a Collection of Scottish Songs and Airs (1799-
1818), to which Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott
contributed.

Thomson, James (1 700-1 748), b. Ednam Manse, Kelso. The
poet of the Seasons.

Thomson, James (1834-1882), b. Port Glasgow, a sailor's son.
Called the poet of despair. Author of "The City of
Dreadful Night " (1874) and other poems.

Thomson, Rev. John (1778-1840), b. Dailly Manse, Ayrshire.
Became minister of Duddingston. He was one of the

268 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

best of Scottish landscape painters, and at the same
time faithful to his parochial duties.

Thomson, Joseph (1858-1895), b. Penpont, Dumfriesshire.
An African explorer.

Tulloch, Rev. John (1823-1886), b. Bridge of Earn, Perth-
shire. A well-known writer and divine. Principal of
St. Mary's College, St. Andrews.

Tytler, William (1711-1792), b. Edinburgh. A Writer to
the Signet and a historian. His son, Alexander Fraser
Tytler (1747-1813), was Professor of History in Edin-
burgh University and afterwards became a judge as
Lord Woodhouselee, one of whose sons was Patrick
Fraser Tytler (1 791- 1849), who wrote a valuable History
of Scotland (1828-1843).

Ure, Andrew, M.D. (1778-1857), b. Glasgow. An eminent
chemist. Author of several scientific works, including
a Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines (1839).

Veitch, William, LL.D. (1794-1885), b. Spittal, near Jed-
burgh. Author of an important work on Greek Verbs,
Irregular and Defective (1848).

Wade, George, Field-Marshal (167 3-1 748), grandson of a
major of Dragoons in Cromwell's army. Commanded
in the Highlands for several years after the rebellion
of 1 715, and made roads there.

Wardlaw, Elizabeth, Lady (1677-1727), daughter of Sir
Charles Halkett of Pitfirrane, in Fifeshire, married Sir
Henry Wardlaw of Pitreavie, near Dunfermline.
Author of the ballad " Hardyknute " (1719), about the
Battle of Largs, which appeared anonymously and
created much interest. Sir Walter Scott said it was
the first poem he ever learned and the last he should
ever forget.

Watt, James (1 736-1 81 9), b. Greenock. Made important
improvements in the steam engine.

Wedderburn, Alexander, see Rosslyn.

Whyte-Melville, George John (1821-1878), b. Mount-
Melville, in Fifeshire. Major in the Coldstream Guards.
Served with the Turkish cavalry in the Crimea. Author
of several well-known novels.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 269

Wilkie, Sir David (1785-1841), b. Cults Manse, Fifeshire.
A great artist. His greatest work is said to be "The
Chelsea Pensioners listening to the News of Waterloo,"
which was painted for the Duke of Wellington.

Wilson, Alexander (1766-1813), b. Paisley. Author of
" Watty and Meg " (1792) and other poems. Went to
America and became a great ornithologist.

Wilson, Sir Daniel, LL.D. (1816-1892), b. Edinburgh.
Became President of the University of Toronto. Author
of several works on antiquities and archaeology.

Wilson, John (1 785-1854), b. Paisley. Known by the pen-
name " Christopher North." Professor of Moral Philo-
sophy in Edinburgh University. One of the ablest of the
contributors to Blackwood's Magazine.

Wilson, John Mackay (1804-1835), b. Tweedmouth. Wrote
poems. Began to collect the series of tales known as
Wilson's Tales of the Borders (1 834-1841).

Wodrow, Robert (1679-1734), b. Glasgow, son of James
Wodrow, Professor of Divinity in Glasgow University.
Became minister of Eastwood, in Renfrewshire. Author
of a History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland
1660-1688 (1721), Analecta, or a History of Remarkable
Providences (published 1842) (which deals largely with
the supernatural experiences of the Covenanters), and
other works.

Young, Andrew (1807-1889), b. Edinburgh. Schoolmaster
in Edinburgh and St. Andrews. Author of the well-
known hymn, " There is a Happy Land."

Young, James (1811-1883), b. Glasgow. Studied chemistry,
became manager of chemical works in Lancashire, and
in 1847-1850 conducted experiments which led to the
manufacture of paraffin oil.

INDEX

Abercromby, Sir Ralph, 96
Agriculture, 127-129, 131, 134
Alberoni, Cardinal, 39
American Colonies, revolt of, 87
Atholl, Duke of, 8, 29
Argyll, John, Duke of, 28, 51, 52,

133
Auchterarder case, 199
Austrian Succession, War of the,

54

Balmerino, Lord, 75

Banks, 139

Battle of Alexandria, 96; Camper-
down, 96; Clifton, 64; Corunna,
97; Culloden, 72; Dettingen,
54; Falkirk, 67; Fontenoy, 55;
Glenshiel, 40; Nile, 96; Pres-
ton, 32; Prestonpans, 61;
Sheriff muir, 33; Trafalgar, 96;
Waterloo, 97

Berwick, Duke of, 21

Black Watch, 43

Boston, Rev. Thomas, 167

Braxfield, Lord, 98, 99

Brougham, Henry, Lord, 100

Burns, Robert, 113, 156-158

Burt's Letters from the North of
Scotland, 109

Bute, Earl of, 86, 97

Cameron, Dr. Archibald, 75
Cameron of Lochiel, 54, 56, 59
Campbell, Thomas, 162
Canals, 141

Carlyle, Rev. Dr. Alexander, 194
Carstairs, Principal, 191
Cattle rearing, 129, 135
Chalmers, Dr. Thomas, 101, 168,

198, 201, 205
Character, Scottish types of, 123
Charles Edward, Prince, 54-77
Chatham, William Pitt, Earl of,

84, 85, 88
Chevalier, Prince James, the, 31,

35. 77

Church, American Episcopal, 189;
Cameronian, 184, 205; Dises-
tablishment of , 204 ; Episcopal,

41, 80, 178, 183, 186-189;
Evangelical, 94, 193; Free,
203; Moderate, 93, 193; Parlia-
mentary, 201 ; Patronage, 25,
191, 193; Presbyterian, 41, 186,
190-206; Reformed Presby-
terian, 205; Roman Catholic,
91, 189, 198; Secessions and
Divisions, 195, 197; Unions,
204, 205; United Free, 205;
United Presbyterian, 205

Clan Act, 30

Clearances in the Highlands, 135

Clothing of the people, 107-108

Cockburn, Henry, 101

Colt Brigg, Canter of, 59

Commerce, 123, 143

Commissioners, Forfeited Estates,

42, 78

Cope, Sir John, 58-60
Cotton manufacture, 140
Covenants, the, 180- 181
Craik, Sir Henry, quoted, 123
Crofters Act, 138
Cromarty, Earl of, 75
Cromwell, Oliver, 2, 182
Cumberland, Duke of, 55, 63, 66,
70, 73, 74

Darien Expedition, 4-6
Deer forests, 136
Derby, march to, 63
Derwentwater, Earl of, 31
Disarming the Highlanders, 43, 79
Disestablishment, 204
Disruption of 1843, 202-204
Distress in the Highlands, 137
Drummond, Lord John, 30
Duncan, Admiral Viscount, 96
Dundas, Henry, see Melville

Edinburgh houses, 119; society,
119-121; New Town, 122

270

INDEX

271

Education, 144-153

Emigration from the Highlands,

89-90, 125
Enclosures, 132
" Equivalent," the, 18
Erastianism, 51, 204
Erskine, Henry, 100
Erskine, Rev. Ebenezer, 195

Fergusson, Robert, 156
Fletcher of Saltoun, 14
Food of the common people,

109
Forbes, Duncan, of Culloden, 46,

52, 65, 74, 79, 85, 133
For bin's expedition, 21
Forfeited estates restored, 95
Forster, Thomas, M.P., 31
French Revolution, 95
Funerals, 111

Gaelic poets, 173, 174

General Assembly, 94, 177, 194,

202
Gillespie, Rev. Thomas, 196
Glasgow, commerce, 123; ship-
ping, 143
Glencoe, Massacre of, 3, 14, 105
Graham of Claverhouse, 3, 184
Green, case of Captain, n
Greenshields, case of, 24

Hamilton, Duke of, 8

Hawley, General, 66, 73

Heart of Midlothian, 48

Hereditary jurisdictions abolished,
79, 117, 124

Highland garb, 79, 94, 108; regi-
ments, 85

Historians, Scottish, 167

Hogg, James, the Ettrick Shep-
herd, 159

Hooke's mission, 21

Houses of the common people,
107, 124

Howe, Lord, 96

Hume, David, 122, 162-165

" Hungry years," the, 105, 116

Indemnity, Act of, 38, 75, 80
Industries, 127, 138
Iron manufacture, 140
Islay, Lord (Duke of Argyll), 52,
81, 85, 87

Jeffrey, Lord, 100
Jervis, Sir John, 96
Johnson, Dr. Samuel, 87, 168
Jones, John Paul, 91
Justices of the Peace appointed,
20

Kelp manufacture, 136
Kidnapping, 80
Kilmarnock, Lord, 75
Kirk Session, the, 118
Knox, John, 177, 178

Laud's Prayer-book, 179-180, 189
Linen manufacture, 139
Lockhart of Carnwath, 26
Lords, House of, 24, 205
Lords of the Congregation, 177
Loudoun, Lord, 69
Lovat, Simon Fraser, Lord, 34,
54, 75

Macdonald, Flora, 76

Macdonald, Marshal, 56

Mackintosh of Borlum, 31

Malt tax, 26, 43

Mar, Earl of, 28, 37, 38

Marischal, Earl, 39

Marrow controversy, 193

Meal mobs, 89

Melville, Henry Dundas, Vis-
count, 87, 90, 92, 98, 101

Militia, Scottish, 91

Mill, the estate, 130

Moidart, Prince Charles lands
at, 56

Montrose, Marquis of, 182

Moore, Sir John, 97

Moy, Rout of, 69

Murray, Lord George, 58, 62, 64,
68, 71, 73, 75

Nelson, Lord, 96

Newcastle, the Duke of, 52, 63

North, Lord, 87, 88

Ormonde, Duke of, 39
Ossian, Macpherson's, 169

Paine's Rights 0/ Man, 98
Parliament, Scottish, 9-15, 118,

144
Parish schools, 144
Peel, Sir Robert, 103, 202

272 SCOTLAND SINCE THE UNION

Pelham, Henry, 53
Peninsular War, 96
Perth, Duke of, 30, 58, 75
Philosophy, Scottish, or " Com-
mon Sense," 152, 165, 166
Pitt, William, 91, 94, 101
Poor, the, 118- 119
Porteous, Captain, 49
Potato cultivation, 124
Prisons of Scotland, 117
Privy Council, Scottish, 24
Punishment of crime, 116

Queensberry, Duke of, 7

Railways, 142

Ramsay, Allan (poet), 121, 155,

175
Ramsay, Allan (artist), 121, 174
Rebellionjof 1715, 28-38; of .1745,

54-77
Reform Bills, 103, 104
Reform, Parliamentary, 90, 95
Reformation in Scotland, 178
Reid, Dr. Thomas, 165
Religious writers, 167, 168
Rent paying, 130
Restoration of Charles II., 183
Revival of learning, 144
Revolution, French, 95, 97
Revolution Settlement, 184
Riots at Bonnymuir and other

places, 102
Roads, 43, 124, 131, 141
" Rockings," no
Ruddiman, Thomas, 154
Ryding of Parliament, 9

Sabbatarianism, 113

Saxe, Marshal, 55

Scotland and England after

Culloden, 82-84
Scots Estates, see Parliament
Scots speech, 122
Scott, Sir Walter, 100, 169-172
Scottish art, 174-176
Seafield, Earl of, 8, 16
Seaforth, Earl of, 29, 33
Security, Act of, 10
Sedition, Trials for, 99, 102
Session, Court of, 24
Seven Years' War, 84, 86, 90

Shawfield Riots, 46

Shearings, 130

Sheep farming in the Highlands,

135
Sheriff-substitutes appointed, 79
Sinclair, Sir John, 135
Skinner, Rev. John, 158
Smith, Adam, 166
Smollett, Tobias George, 161
Smuggling, 47
Social life, 105-126
Squdrone Volante, 8, 14
Stage coaches, 141, 142
Stair, John Dalrymple, Earl of, 14
Steam navigation, 140
Strathbogie case, 200
Superstition, 114

Tannahill, Robert, 159

Telford, Thomas, 141

Ten years' conflict, 198-203

Thomson, James, 160

Toleration Act, 25, 187, 191

Tree-planting, 132

Tullibardine, Marquis of, 29, 39,

56, 57, 75
Turnip cultivation, 124

Union, Commissioners appointed,
1?; under Cromwell, 2; of
crowns, 1 ; opposition in Scot-
land, 14; repeal proposed, 26;
Treaty of, 7, 17, 23, 106, 123,
142

Universities, 150-152

Voluntaryism, 51, 204

Wade, Field- Marshal, 42, 46, 62

Walpole, Robert, 45, 51, 52, 85

War of the French Revolution, 96

Watt, James, 140

Weddings, in

Wellington, Duke of, 97, 103

Westminster Assembly of Divines,

181
Wilkes, John, and the " Patriots,"

86-87
Witchcraft, 115
Woollen manufacture, 138

York, Henry Stuart, Duke of, 77

1>A

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